THERE was bitter disappointment for North Yorkshire sidecar aces Steve Webster and Paul Woodhead at a windswept Silverstone when they blew an engine with only three laps to go when in a commanding 16 second lead.

Pole qualifier Webster had run a textbook race in the fourth round of the 2002 Superside FIM Sidecar World Championship.

He was never headed from the start and pulled out a big lead e set about pulling out a gap on the following pack. With a massive lead and the race seemingly in the bag, an inlet valve on the 1200c Suzuki dropped, wrecking the motor and with it the duo's hopes of taking the lead in the 2002 Championship table.

Earlier arch rivals and current World Champions Klaus Klaffenbock and Christian Parzer went out after only three laps with an oil leak. The opportunity was there for Webster to leapfrog his rival in the points table, but with only minutes remaining, the chance vanished.

After the loss of a guaranteed 25 points Easingwold-based Webster said: ""Just utter bad luck. What can I say? We've got to just take on the chin and get the motor fixed and concentrate on the next round. We had it in the bag again, everything had gone to plan.

"About seven laps in I eased off the pace a bit knowing we were well clear and then the motor goes just like that. I'm very disappointed, but it's happened now and we have to get over it and focus on the next race."

With Webster and Klaffenbock out, the way was left clear for Steve Abbot and Jamie Biggs to take the chequered flag for the second time this season, and go to the top of the table on 66 points, just one in front of Saturday's third place man Jorg Steinhausen. Sandwiched between them was British pair Tom Hanks and Phil Biggs, who in taking second place recorded their best ever result, and go to fourth in the rankings.

The win was a popular one for Steve Abbott, who has been racing at this level for more than 20 years. His first rostrum result came at Silverstone way back in 1982, but in that time he has only managed five wins in total, all in the last three seasons.

Webster is now languishing in fifth in the points, but only 16 behind Abbott with six races of the ten round series to go.

Updated: 11:57 Monday, May 27, 2002