Hodgson 2nd at Daytona

Britain’s Neil Hodgson has taken an impressive second place at Daytona on his AMA Superbike debut.

The former World Superbike champion had a good start on the Parts Unlimited Austin Ducati 999R, battling for the lead with Suzuki rider Aaron Yates before Australian Matt Mladin was able to catch and pass the pair. Mladin was able to build a gap of around a second with two laps, and the race for the front was effectively over as the Suzuki start took his fourth Daytona win and 33rd AMA Superbike victory.

Hodgson was able to take a comfortable second as he moved clear of a group of pursuers on lap six of the 15 lap race.

“I’m glad to have got that one out of the way,” said Hodgson. “Everybody’s got a little bit of testing planned and then we’ll go to the next round. Last night when I was in bed someone would have said ‘You’ll finish second’ I would have taken it.”

“Unfortunately, Mat was just too quick. Everbody warned me ‘Watch out for Mat, he’ll go really quickly in the beginning.’ And he did, so I got caught with my pants down. But I don’t think I could have stayed with him anyway.”

The drama in the race unfolded around the battle for the final podium position with Aaron Yates, Miguel Duhamel, Ben Spies and Jake Zemke. The works Honda duo of Duhamel and Zemke got caught out by backmarkes int he closing stages, with Zemke taking a route across the grass, and Duhamel sailing straight through the chicane. That left Spies, who made a hash of starting from second on the grid, to chase down Aaron Yates before drafting underneath him at the finishing line.

Britain’s other hope, John McGuinness, retired after one lap on the Kawasaki ZX-10R.

Daytona Top ten:

Mladin

Hodgson

Spies

Yates

Zemke

Duhamel

Pridmore

May

Roberts

Rapp.

Click here for the full results.