Former World Superbike Champion Neil Hodgson reckons he feels good going in the first AMA American Superbike Championship round at the famous Daytona Speedway this weekend.
Hodgson, who has switched to the Corona Honda team for 2009 after Honda pulled all of its factory teams out of the series, set the fastest time at the recent Fontana test and was also quickest at the Daytona tyre tests earlier this year.
"We had a good test there and maybe some of the little things we
learned at Fontana will show there," said Hodgson. "The problem is you get on the bike at Daytona and everything feels so different again, because it's Daytona. Yeah, it's good to be in this position."
When asked when he was last in this position, he grinned: ""That's a very, very good question. I'll tell you when it was, way too long ago, way too long ago. It'd be 2003." Which was his World Superbike title-winning season.
The Yorkshire-born star is also in favour of the new technical rules for his class which have pushed the bikes closer to last year's Superstock regulations.
"The Honda street bike's so good when you get on a track with it. I can ride a stock CBR1000RR street bike around a race circuit and be about four seconds slower than I would be on my absolute all singing, all dancing American Honda Superbike.
"It's ridiculous. You can't believe you can get that close to this. And that's obviously on treaded tires with no quick-shifter or anything."
