Britain’s Neil Hodgson had a frustrated AMA Superbike weekend at Road Atlanta, suffering a first-lap engine blow up in race one and brake problems in race two.

Hodgson’s Saturday race ended with an engine failure on the first lap. He called on his years of racing two-strokes to pull in the clutch before the rear wheel locked up in the hard braking left hander at the end of the track’s longest straightaway. On Sunday, a problem with the front brakes cropped up early and Hodgson was forced to severely alter his corner entry on a track with a number of hard braking downhill corners. He finished seventh, riding mostly by himself.

Road Atlanta was the third race in five weeks in the eastern U.S. Now the team returns to its California workshop to re-group for the season finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on September 28.

"Really frustrating, obviously, to go out so early on with a problem with the engine. Just one of those things, I guess," said Hodgson.

"It almost felt like a two-stroke, like it seized. It just went silent as I got into the turn ten braking area on the first lap, which is quite busy anyway, the first lap into there. Just at the end of the straight, just locked up. Locked, had to pull the clutch in. Luckily, I did a few years on two-strokes, so automatic reaction, really, to pull the clutch in. I’d fallen on that bike on Friday in between six and seven. I touched the paint and as soon I hit the brakes we were on the paint and it washed out. We rode it in the morning and it was OK.

"We had big problems, actually, really big problems with the front brake from about lap three onward today (Sunday). I don’t know what went on, but it was like a brick; there was no movement in it. I’ve never just hit my front brake so much. I know Miguel’s (Duhamel) had some problems in the past and I didn’t know if he were making it up, because I’d had no problems. So it was my first proper experience of it just not working at all. Longest race of my career, that. I had nothing, just riding around."