EASINGWOLD sidecar ace Steve Webster and passenger Paul Woodhead are back on the World Championship trail tomorrow.

Webster and Woodhead have made the long journey to Kyalami, South Africa for the second round of the 2002 FIM Sidecar World Championship.

Webster is on the trail of a ninth world title and further extend his record and reputation as the most prolific sidecar World Champion of all time.

After seemingly having the win in the bag last month in the season opener at Valencia, only to suffer a cracked crankcase with three laps remaining, Webster's avowed mission is to get points in the bag:

"We were going very well in Spain until the case went, and we were very disappointed," he said. "When we checked the engine after we found it was just fatigue in the casting - just one of those things - pure bad luck, and the crack caused the ignition to come loose.

"For this weekend we've got two new engines and we've detuned them a bit for reliability and also because of the high altitude at Kyalami.

"We really need a good result because I don't want to spend the season chasing points and playing catch-up.

"We can't afford to have another bad result if we're going to keep in contention with Klaffenbock, Abbot and Steinhausen."

It's the sidecar's second visit to Kyalami. The first came two years ago in April 2000 when Webster finished second to Klaffenbock after leading for most of the race.

The race was also Webster first with Paul Woodhead in the chair - tomorrow will be their 23rd World Championship race together, but it will be evergreen Webster 151st outing at World level.

Chassis set-up and tyres on the left-handed 2.65 mile circuit during tomorrow's 25 lapper will be crucial.

"Kyalami has got an unusual surface," he added. "We went for a hard tyre there last time out thinking the heat would take it's toll, but for some reason, the tyre didn't wear as much as we'd thought it was going to.

"I had to back off towards the end when we were getting slides, so at least this time we're going with a bit more knowledge than last time.

"Set-up is always crucial and we keep detailed information about everywhere we race so that it makes practice a bit less time consuming next time.

"This'll be my second visit here, so we know what we are going to.

"It's still going to be a tough race though - the heat and altitude make it physically hard work, but we're looking forward to getting out there and getting a good result."

Updated: 12:04 Saturday, April 06, 2002