MEAN MACHINES: Colin Edwards (Texas) leads from Japan's Noriyuki Haga in the opening round of the World Superbike Championship in Kyalami. Defending champion Carl Fogarty, from Blackburn, finished third in the first race but crashed out of the second, leaving him seventh in the first points table. Edwards won the first race and Haga the second.

Seven-time champion Steve Webster and new passenger Paul Woodhead had to settle for second place in the opening round of the 2000 Sidecar World Cup at Kyalami, South Africa yesterday.

Webster, from Easingwold, finished the gruelling 25 lap race - Kyalami's first ever sidecar race - just five seconds behind Klaus Klaffenbock, whose passenger was Webster's former ballast, Adolf Haenni.

From his customary pole position, newly featuring the arrow head shaped grid, Webster was third in to the first corner, after team-mates Jurg Steinhausen and Christian Parzer shot through followed by Klaffenbock and Haenni.

But by the end of lap one Webster made his presence felt and re-took the lead, demonstrating why he was over two seconds faster than anyone in practice.

Webster seemed to have things his way, but couldn't shake off the persistent Klaffenbock and Haenni.

With 25 laps to go, the longest ever for a World Cup sidecar, tyres were going to be the deciding factor.

After 15 laps Webster's advantage was a mere 0.12 second. Unable to pull the gap he wanted, Webster relinquished the lead to Klaffenbock a lap later.

Webster followed Klaffenbock closely, looking for a way through but with four laps to go, dropped back settling for second place.

"We were starting to have a few nasty slides after going so hard for so long, and I didn't want to end up going off the track," said Webster.

"I realised Klaffy was going to be hard to pass and I didn't want to risk us sliding out, so I thought we'd settle for second. His tyres seemed to have lasted better. It's a good result for us though, and something to build on.

"It was a very hard race - I've never done a 25 lapper before - and it was a bit of a rude awakening for the season.

"But the championship is over 12 races, not the first race, so overall I'm quite happy with the result."

The result gave Klaffenbock his fifth ever win, and gives him a five point cushion to take to Philip Island, Australia, in three weeks time.

It was also Kalffenbock's first race with a four stroke engine. He's started using a 1200cc Suzuki identical to Webster.

Webster's team-mate Jurg Steinhausen, with Klaffenbock's former passenger Christian Parzer on boards, finished third.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.