Britain’s Honda's Neil Hodgson moved up to third place in the AMA  Superbike Championship point standings after a difficult weekend at Infineon Raceway this weekend.
 
The former World Superbike Champion finished a close third in Friday's first Superbike practice, held in 40 degree heat with track  temperatures approaching 66 degrees. But as the track cooled down, Hodgson wasn't able to maintain his early form. He qualified seventh
on the grid, one spot in front of team-mate Miguel Duhamel.

For Saturday's race, Hodgson tried a different set-up that he  soon found wasn't an improvement. As soon as the heat took its toll on his tyres, the front end began to chatter and then the rear started too. From then on it was a matter of survival en route to a sixth place finish.

The team went with a more conventional set-up on Sunday and the rideability and results improved. Hodgson was battling with  Aaron Yates (Suzuki) until a mistake near the end of the race put him  out of reach. Hodgson finished fifth and moved up to third in the championship.

He said: “I had a package that I could race after the tyres had gone off.  On Saturday, we went with a really short bike and the tyres went off and it had no feeling. And it would break traction really quick. It just felt horrible to be honest and it just chattered its  brains out.
 
“Sunday I had a little bit of chatter, but a much nicer package that I could race. But unfortunately, I was losing on the last split through the little chicane and the last hairpin. For  whatever reason, I just can't get through them. It's a little bit of me and a little bit is the engine.

“So I basically lost all my time then to Aaron (Yates) and I had to spend the rest of the lap doing everything I could to try to get back in touch.”