Hodgson a close second in inaugural AMA Pro American Superbike race

2009-03-05 17:13
Corona Extra Honda's Neil Hodgson kicked off the AMA Pro American Superbike season with a strong second place finish in the season-opener on a warm, windy afternoon on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway.

The finish thrilled the Isle of Man resident, who thanked his team for building a Honda CBR1000RR capable of winning in a relatively short amount of time. The Corona Extra Honda team wasn't officially announced until just over a month before the race. But once the commitment was made, the team quickly got to work building a machine that took Hodgson to the best finish of his Honda career.

After qualifying the Honda CBR1000RR fourth in the first ever Superpole session, the 2003 World Superbike Champion was in the mix from the start of the 15-lap American Superbike race, slotting into second behind early leader Mat Mladin.

Hodgson took the lead on the sixth lap, now from Larry Pegram (Ducati), to front a quartet of riders. Hodgson then led for two laps before being passed in turn one of the eighth lap by both Mladin and Pegram, and dropping to third.

On the tenth lap Hodgson was back into second, but now under pressure from Mladin's teammate Tommy Hayden, who made a pass on the 14th of 15 laps. But on the final lap Hayden was balked in the chicane and Hodgson closed up for the all-important run from the chicane to the checkered flag, one of the longest full-throttle runs on the AMA calendar.

The pair hit the stripe side by side, but it was Hodgson taking second by the slimmest of margins, officially .001 seconds.

Though he was on the podium twice last year, the second place was Hodgson's best AMA finish since winning in a torrential downpour at Road America in June of 2005.

Neil Hodgson, 2nd Place: "I was definitely pleased with that. It's nice to be battling for a win. I've not had that opportunity for the last few years. Just pleased for the team, because everybody has put a lot of effort in behind the scenes. It has been 12-hour days for everybody. So, it's nice for me to do my job. Obviously, I want to win. After a race like that, I can sit down with my crew chief and see where we need to improve the bikes. There's certainly some areas that I need to improve the bike, but in general I'm pretty happy with that.

When I was in the lead I thought I could win the race. I knew Mat (Mladin) was probably not in 100% condition and, it's such a funny place, Daytona. Your tire can just start going down and there's nothing you can do about it once it starts spinning. I could see Larry's (Pegram) tire go off pretty much. It just went worse and worse and that was him out of the race. And I thought that could happen to Mat. And when I got the lead, I'm thinking, 'I'll just go as fast as I can."

Tim Saunders, Team Principal: "We're very excited, very pleased. What I liked probably most of all is it was a really exciting race and it was exciting for everybody. It was just great that it was the race for the whole 15 laps. And it was lovely to be up front and I think we're excited that the bike's going well, Neil's really excited about it. It looks like the bike's competitive with the others and it just comes down to race craft and good luck and bad luck on the track and that's the best form of racing as far as I'm concerned."

American Superbike Final:
1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
2. Neil Hodgson (Honda)
3. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
4. Larry Pegram (Ducati)
5. Blake Young (Suzuki)
6. Ben Bostrom (Yamaha)
7. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)
8. Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
9. Michael Laverty (Suzuki)
10. Geoff May (Suzuki)

Source: Honda Pro Image

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