It's been a long journey for Neil Hodgson. At the tender at of four years, he started riding motorcycles. On Sunday the British rider scooped a second and a first in the two races at Assen in the Netherlands and won his first World Superbike title. Patricia Weston reports.
Off-road dirt bikes were Hodgson's first taste of biking. "By the time I was nine I knew I wanted to compete at competition level," he told me in a recent interview.
"The sheer buzz you get from racing is amazing. When I was 16 I competed in Motocross but I was too small and skinny and I didn't like the bumpy tracks. I broke my leg and decided to give it up and took up riding on the tarmac instead. I fell in love with racing and found it much easier than Motocross."
Hodgson regards his fathere as his greatest influence. "Dad raced motorbikes himself," he said, "and he's my biggest fan. He always comes to watch me race."
Once he discovered the joy of racing, Hodgson began competing a local level in Lancashire. At 18, he entered the British championships and came 25th. "The year after that I entered the world championships and finished 18th," eighteenth."
During his three years in the world championships he found it difficult to learn new circuits.
"During the World Championship years my bike was a privateer, run by my Dad - there were no sponsorship opportunities until 1996 when I changed to a factory Ducati and then moved from Grand Prix to Superbikes."
It took him a few years to find his feet and get used to the feel of a superbike. "They're heavier than a 500cc Grand Prix bike. The difference between a superbike and a road bike is that there is 60-brake horsepower more and greater suspension. Everything is lighter to make it go faster, the wheels of the 999 are made of aluminium which makes them 2.2 kilos lighter and therefore ideal for racing. The faring is made out of carbon fibre which is more lightweight and more aerodynamic."
He even goes so far as to say, "he did crap in 1996, 97 and 98," and had to go back to British Superbikes to "re-learn his trade."
Because of his poor performance, he says, he "lost confidence" and wasn't strong mentally . . . "probably because I started so young and was racing against heroes such as Carl Fogarty for whom I had too much respect. I had to go back to England to learn to win again.
"Then it all started to fall into place," he reminisces. "It felt like a fluke." The first year of his return to Britain he finished fourth. He zoomed ahead then in 2000 to scoop first place.
Having plied his trade and acquired a smooth, fast and steady style he went on to finish fifth in the world superbikes in 2001 and third in 2002.