Neil Hodgson put his Daytona 200 problems behind him, where he retired from second with a handful of laps to go, to take seventh in the Superbike race on his Honda FireBlade.
He said: "“I was actually pleased with the Superbike to be honest, because I really struggled all weekend. It’s been a bit embarrassing to be honest. I feel I’ve not rode to my potential on the Superbike. But I find it actually difficult jumping from one bike to the next. And trying to concentrate, because it’s always back to back. The racing wasn’t too bad. I’m still working on traction control and everything like that and I think I got too much on at one stage and I was messing with it during the race. I could only make my time up on the brakes and again going into turn six, I was in a bit of a dice, and I hit the brakes, lost the front and I were a passenger. Nothing I could do. Tried to stay on the track as long as I could and then ran off the track. But then I was quite pleased with myself because I really kept my head down and managed just to get Roger (Hayden) at the end.”
Britain's James McBride was 23rd. 
Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin made his way to Gatorade Victory Lane for the sixth time at Daytona International Speedway after winning his third AMA Superbike Opening Round at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, leading the entire 15-lap event.

“It was good fun,” Mladin said. “We got a really good start and put our head down and got out to about one second, or a bit over one second, when Ben (Spies) got there into second place. He had a little bit of a go there, so we dropped it a few more tenths and almost got down to qualifying time for a number of laps.”

The 2007 AMA Superbike Opening Round winner Ben Spies finished 3.368 seconds behind Mladin, taking second.

“The race was pretty good,” Spies said. “We didn’t get a great start and I’m pretty unhappy about that, but got pushed out a little bit. By the time we got to second, I kept my head down and kept plugging away and made one pretty good mistake of my own. Other than that, the race was good. I can’t complain.”

Rounding out the podium was Yamaha’s Jason Disalvo.

“I’m really fortunate Yamaha gave me this opportunity to come out here and ride this bike,” DiSalvo said. “The YZF-R1 was ripping today and like I said, it’s really great to see all of this hard work pay off — both the crew and myself.”

Mladin’s victory marked Suzuki’s fifth straight Superbike win in Daytona (including the 2004 Daytona 200 By Honda).

Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden and Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking finished fourth and fifth, respectively as Daytona 200 Week By Honda comes to a close.
 
AMA Superbike Results
Daytona International Speedway
Daytona Beach, Fla.

1. Mat Mladin, Suzuki, 15
2. Ben Spies, Suzuki, 15
3. Jason Disalvo, Yamaha, 15
4. Tommy Hayden, Suzuki, 15
5. Jamie Hacking, Kawasaki, 15
6. Aaron Yates, Suzuki, 15
7. Neil Hodgson, Honda, 15
8. Roger Hayden, Kawasaki, 15
9. Blake Young, Suzuki, 15
10. Geoff May, Suzuki, 15
11. Akira Yanagawa, Kawasaki, 15
12. Miguel Duhamel, Honda, 15
13. Chris Peris, Suzuki, 15
14. Matt Lynn, Honda, 15
15. Chris Ulrich, Suzuki, 15
16. Scott Jensen, Suzuki, 15
17. Ben Thompson, Suzuki, 15
18. Brian McCormick, Suzuki, 15
19. Horst Saiger, Suzuki, 15
20. Dean Mizdal, Suzuki, 14
21. Santiago Villa, Suzuki, 14
22. Keith Marshall, Suzuki, 14
23. James McBride, Suzuki, 14
24. Johnny Rock Page, Yamaha, 14
25. Eric Bostrom, Yamaha, 10
26. Scott Russell, Yamaha, DNS
27. Robertino Pietri, Suzuki, DNS