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Hodgson fights for podium at Fontana

Posted by Staff
Monday, 28 April 2008
From Honda Racing Hodgson Fights for Podium in Sunny Southern California American Honda's Neil Hodgson fought for podium positions in both rounds of the AMA Superbike Championship at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, but a mistake in the same corner in both races prevented him from finishing on the box. Still, he came away from the wind-blown, sun-baked weekend with a pair of fourth place finishes, his best since joining the American Honda team. Teammate Miguel Duhamel turned in his best laps of the weekend late in Saturday's Superbike race. But he'd put himself in a hole early in the race which didn't allow him to challenge as strongly as he might have. On Sunday, an engine problem put a premature halt to his race as he was making a run on the trio contesting fourth, one that included his teammate. Saturday's race saw Hodgson moving into third place on the ninth lap of Saturday's 28-lap affair and holding it until the 23rd lap. That's when Tommy Hayden, the older brother of Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden, made a pass for the final podium position. Hodgson was making a run at Hayden when he overshot the transition from the banking into the infield. It didn't cost him a position, just time that he wasn't able to recover. On Sunday he didn't start as well and had to come from behind, which he did. Again he found himself chasing Tommy Hayden. And although he was able to shrink the deficit, he wasn't able to gain the position. And again he mistimed the infield approach. "In general I'm pleased," he said before heading back to his home on the Isle of Man for a quick visit. "Daytona we qualified tenth and finished seventh. Barber we qualified sixth and had two fifths. So we qualified sixth here and had two fourths. We have got a new motorcycle. No excuses. We're definitely making steps forward and we know where we need to improve the bike." Duhamel finished seventh on Saturday, improving his lap times as his fuel load decreased. Changes to the machine improved his confidence on Sunday, but an engine problem dropped him from the field on the 10th of 28 laps. The teams now have just over a week's rest before a test at Miller Motorsports Park, site of the American round of the World Superbike Championship in early June. From there they head to the wine country for the fourth round of the championship at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California on May 18. Neil Hodgson 4th, 4th We're getting definitely better with the bike settings and it's helping me ride a bit harder. Yesterday, as I was trying to pass Tommy, I hit the brakes going to my favorite corner. I instantly lost the front slightly. I released the brakes and knew I was not going to make the corner. Luckily there, you can kill a lot of speed by turning right up the banking. So I did that and it worked pretty good. Obviously, it didn't help my position. Tommy (Hayden) was better than me through that flip-flop and accelerating out of there, so I was always making it up on the brakes. But this time I think it was just a little more lean angle. The bike worked better today than yesterday. It was easier to change direction (and easier on the tires with just some geometry changes. No excuses. It's so different to a Ducati and I've got that much experience on one. The way the Ducati felt to me, this bike feels different. And I'm building confidence in it. I'm starting to enjoy myself now. Miguel Duhamel 7th, DNF Just a little bit of bad luck; that's racing. The engine was maybe running a little hot and I think something in the engine got a little tight and didn't like that. And it's unfortunate because we had a better start than yesterday and I was pretty calm and composed there, staying behind Matt (Lynn). I figured when he started losing some ground then I passed him and I saw Jamie (Hacking) was struggling, so I said, 'OK, I'm going to get up to Jamie.' I really felt confident, I thought I could get back up to around Neil (Hodgson) and Eric (Bostrom) and Jason DiSalvo, because it wasn't that far and I felt quite comfortable. So they picked up the pace, so it would have been hard to do. Before we could execute the plan we had that problem. Yesterday we went with a different set-up for the bike and when we had the full fuel load it was diving the front end too quickly. And I had no feedback from the front, so as the fuel load got lighter I got faster and the bike balance came back and then I was able to do those good laps at the end. But at the beginning it was impossible. It was overloading the front so much that if I just touched the front it wanted to tuck the front a bit. So I just survived through that knowing that if I get the fuel load, and the fuel load's going to get light, it should come back, and it came back quite good and I was able to put in a charge at the end. American Honda Road Race Manager Ron Heben Actually, a pretty encouraging weekend for our guys. Got back from Barber (Motorsports Park) and only had a really short week, but listened to the comments that Neil (Hodgson) and Miguel (Duhamel) had about the bike and looked at what we did here for the test. I think it shows how hard the team's working, it shows how hard Neil and Miguel are working. They don't like being where they're at and they want to keep working at it; it's the same with the team. So we go to Miller (Motorsports Park) for a test here in a couple of weeks and hopefully when we get to Infineon (Raceway) we can take the next step and start challenging a little bit more. It's a good weekend. We're pretty happy with what we've got. Obviously, we wanted to be on the box. We know we've got more work to do, but we're at least moving in the right direction.

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