Superbike champion Neil Hodgson

 
 

Tuesday, 04 December 2007

After spending a year in racing limbo, former World Superbike champion Neil Hodgson didn’t get much time to shake off the rust before being thrown into his 2008 workload at Daytona International Speedway. The new American Honda rider was a busy man this past weekend, having to carry the bulk of the test riding duties on the team’s CBR600RR FX racer and all-new ’08 CBR1000RR Superbike with teammate Miguel DuHamel still at home recuperating from injuries sustained during testing at Road Atlanta.

Erion Honda’s Josh Hayes helped out by putting in some time on the Superbikes at the end of Sunday, but other than that, it was all Hodgson, who may have put in more laps than any other rider during the Dunlop test.

“Obviously we’ve had a lot to test,” Hodgson said. “I’m really, really pleased. The 600 we’ve got dialed in, I know what I'm doing with that -- got a good setting. And sort of my preferred tire, I know what I like. I know I can come here and just ride around with that setting and I should be quick. And then with the Superbike we’ve a mountain to climb. We knew we would have. It’s no surprise. We’re trying to turn this street bike into a racebike. We’ve learned some stuff today. I said if I can do a ‘39 on that I'll be happy and I did a 39.2, which I'm pleased with because it’s very stock. We've so much to work on. If I could ride it tomorrow I'd get a second off that, you know what I mean?”

Hodgson got a chance to A-B the ’08 machine with last year’s Superbike and came away with a favorable impression of the new bike’s potential despite its early stage of development.

“I rode the old bike at the end just to confirm some things and it’s so different, you know what I mean? It’s definitely better in a lot of areas, in a lot of areas, so should be good.”

Still, there’s a long ways to go, as should be expected with the very stock racer that the team only received on Thanksgiving day. “We didn’t have any (engine) management. And at the moment the throttle to back wheel connection was horrendous then. So it’s horrible. All these horseshoe style corners, you’ve just got to turn the throttle really late, because other you’ll be just over the handlebars with no electronics to save you at all. If you count out how far off it feels… It’s not even a Superstock bike, really. It’s just a street bike with some suspension.” This story is from AMS Superbike for more on this story please visit them at www.amasuperbike.com

Photo from www.amasuperbike.com

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