AFTER the bitter disappointment of Silverstone two weeks ago, sidecar ace Steve Webster has been burning the midnight oil in his workshop rebuilding and building new engines ahead of his trip to Lausitzring Eurospeedway, Germany tomorrow.

It's round five of the ten race 2002 Superside FIM Sidecar World Championship, and it will be Webster's second visit to the purpose-built racing facility in the former East Germany.

The workshop hours have given the eight-time World Champion a break to put things into perspective for the second half of the season, as well as finding out what caused the engine to give up the ghost so terminally.

"I dashed home after Silverstone and had the engine in bits on Sunday night," he said.

"We found that the crank web had just broken off, and that's about as catastrophic as it gets with four stokes engines.

"It went off like a grenade inside, the crank, the crankcase, barrels and pistons are all just scrap metal.

"The only thing salvageable was the clutch and gearbox. Why it happened, who knows?

"A crank going is a one-off - I've never had one go like that, it must have just been metal fatigue or something.

"What is really annoying is that it takes 60 hours of balancing and polishing to get the cranks right in the first place, and then it all just goes with a bang.

"The only answer would be to have every component crack tested, but I would have to employ two people full-time to do it, which just isn't an option.

"That's how they do it in Formula One, and virtually every time they go out it's with a brand-new engine. Nobody in sidecar racing has got the budget for that.

"It was particularly annoying because knowing we had a good lead I was being gentle with the engine, not revving out to the maximum, changing gears 500rpm short, and it's just pure bad luck.

"However, there are still six races to go and so it's still wide open.

"We're still feeling very positive, we know we have got the beating of them on the day - the bike is very fast, and Paul (Woodhead) and I are going well, so we've just to focus on each race and go out for a win each time.

"I'm not as worried as you might think - crankshafts just don't normally break like that, so we know with just a bit of luck we can turn the season around.

"There's still a long way to go and we're feeling very strong as a team.

"The next two tracks are circuits I like and have gone well on, so we're looking forward to it."

Last year at Lausitzring, Webster won the race in appalling rain, that inadvertently caused several of the competitors to leave the circuit accidentally.

Being a new track, the 4.2 km circuit has several alternative routes and access roads.

In the spray and gloom of last year, one competitor found himself leaving the circuit accidentally after missing a corner in the rain.

To compound his embarrassment, the three following outfits did just the same.

Nevertheless, it's a tough circuit for the racers, with every type of corner thrown in.

With the season approaching the halfway point, tomorrow's results could well set the tone for the run in to the championship.

Updated: 11:33 Friday, June 07, 2002