EASINGWOLD sidecar star Steve Webster enjoyed a superb win at Silverstone to blast right back in to the World Championship picture.

He clawed Austrian's ace Klaus Klaffenbock's lead to just six points with only four of the season's ten races run.

The win gave Webster the chance to celebrate in style 20 years of World Championship racing - it was back in 1983 when he made his Grand Prix debut at the Northamptonshire track.

Webster and passenger Paul Woodhead brought home their Castrol Suzuki GSXR1000 5.3 seconds ahead of Klaffenbock, who'd shrugged off a last lap challenge from Jorg Steinhausen.

Webster had to battle hard to overcome a poor start as Steinhausen shot into an early lead with Tom Hanks in close formation.

Webster was third on lap one, but on lap three took second place from Hanks, and soon he was pressuring race leader Steinhausen. By the end of lap four Webster had grabbed control of the race and immediately set about building a gap.

Within three laps, that gap was three seconds as Webster showed his dominance and for the rest of the field, it was virtually all over.

"It was a great race, and a perfect result. We used a modified engine with different cams and valves to give us more mid range power and it was brilliant," he said.

"We were away a bit slow at the start because I've changed the clutch actuation and haven't quite got used to the feel of it yet - and I didn't want to stress it too much on the line. We had a good dice with Hanks and it was hard to get past him, but I wanted to get clear."

But Webster's hard work could have come undone with three laps to go when Andy Peach managed to turn over his outfit at low speed in the new bus-stop chicane at the Woodcote bend, just seconds before Webster arrived:

"Andy turned it upside down and his bike was across the track but we got past it safely - had we been close behind him when it happened it could've been different" said Webster.

Woodhead said: "We had a lot of people here at the track - friends, sponsors and so on - and with it being the home race it does put a bit more pressure on. It was very hard work for the first five laps until we got past the traffic but once we got a lead I knew it was going to turn out right."

The win was Webster's 54th World Championship victory, and came on the back of his 22nd consecutive pole position.

The lap record also went to Webster, in a time of 1min 59.481, a time just two-tenths off his clear-track pole qualifying time. It was also his 116th rostrum place in 136 race finishes, and 37th pole-and-win combination at the same event.

The next race, round five, is at Misano in Italy, next Sunday.

Neil Hodgson took the fifth winning double of the World Superbike Championship campaign with a flawless performance in front of 55,000 adoring fans.

He beat James Toseland by half a second in the first race and then held off Regis Lacona by a similar margin in the second race.

Updated: 11:37 Monday, June 16, 2003