NORTH Yorkshire's sidecar ace Steve Webster and passenger Paul Woodhead were celebrating double time after their superb back-to-back wins at Assen, Holland.

With two World Championship races scheduled in the same weekend for the first time ever, the current championship leaders rose to the challenge with two masterful wins, and in bagging the maximum 50 points on offer, so increased their championship lead to 20 points with just two rounds to go.

After extending their unprecedented and astonishing run of pole qualifications to 25 on the spin, Webster and Woodhead got Saturday's race underway with a less than brilliant start, as Monza winners Jorg Steinhausen and Trevor Hopkinson dashed away.

Webster found himself in third place and boxed in behind 2002 World Champions Steve Abbott and Jamie Biggs, and Webster's determination to get through caused a brief coming together on the first lap.

Said Webster: "I went for the gap, going in a bit too fast and bumped into the back of Abbo into a left-hander - but I actually caught his passenger, on the backside. It dented the nose of our bike, and I said 'sorry' to Jamie after, but he was okay about it. I'd just gone in too fast."

It took just four laps for an ultra-determined Webster to get right back on Steinhausen's rear wheel, smashing his own lap record in the process, and he then grabbed the lead at the end of the sixth lap, diving inside at the fast right-hander at the end of the start-finish straight.

With a clear road in front Webster and Woodhead then turned up the wick to stay just far enough in front to ensure Steinhausen couldn't slipstream him. Webster took the honours with a comfortable 6.86 second advantage over Steinhausen.

In race two yesterday afternoon, Abbott was the fast starter, leaving Webster third behind Steinhausen. But this time Webster was determined to get clear of the melee early, and by lap two he was in the lead, and running away with it.

By the sixth lap the gap was five seconds and climbing. With three laps to go the Team Castrol Suzuki pairing of Webster and Woodhead were home and dry easing the pace marginally to take their win by 6.4 seconds.

Enthused a joyous Webster after notching his 57th Grand Prix win: "What a perfect weekend. The bike was just great - all we did was change the oil between races and it went perfectly - we had no problems at all. I thought before the weekend having two races would be hard work, but we prepared well for it and got the wins we so badly wanted."

Webster now has a useful 20-point lead over 2001 champion Klaus Klaffenbock with two races left in this year's championship.

But it won't have escaped Webster and Woodhead's notice that if they win next time out in the ninth round of the series at Imola on September 27, they'll take the 2003 title with a race in hand even if Klaffenbock comes second again.

Updated: 11:05 Monday, September 08, 2003