Corona Honda's Neil Hodgson reckons he is happy to have survived his return to AMA Superbike racing at Infineon this weekend, despite tipping off in the first race and scoring a ninth in the second outing.
The former World Superbike Champion made his return last weekend after a long lay-off caused by a bad motocross injury. His hopes for the title are now over but he says he was riding as hard as he could.
"Sort of knackered, second-hand is how I feel. It was tough, tough race. I knew it was going to be around this track. Obviously, first race back after the injury. But I survived, I rode as hard as I could," said the Isle of Man resident.
"I was good for about five laps and then everything sort of wore off, the pain-killers. And you never feel total clarity when you've taken quite a lot of pain-killers and anti inflammatories and stuff. So I felt slightly not on my game, anyway. But, it were a long sort of last 12, 13 laps.
"What was happening is as I got weaker on the bike, I then didn't move my body position and just leaned the bike further over, because I didn't have the strength to put the bike into the corner. And then I were like riding off the edge of the tyres and nearly crashing it and I thought, 'I'm going to crash it trying to battle for seventh place.' And having crashed in the first race, I didn't want to do it again.
"That was just the usual last-corner crash. I trail braked onto the bump, which is pretty much onto the apex. I didn't get away with it. The bike, it's not good at turning on those sorts of corners anyway. You've pretty much got to trail brake to make it turn. I just asked too much really. I got caught out with how greasy the track was. I think everyone was ready for it Sunday, but on Saturday it caught everybody out.
"So I survived and I sort of didn't come here with any expectations of great results or anything. I knew what I had. I knew it was going to be a problem. I survived the weekend and I'm confident that this is as bad as it'll ever be and it'll be a lot stronger for the next race at Elkhart Lake. I think the Honda's pretty fast. Obviously, you need speed around there. So I'm looking forward to it and my season starts again at Elkhart, I'd say. This was just a practice, a bit of a shakedown, really."
