Hodgson escapes with 6th at AMA Laguna Superbike

Race day at Laguna Seca was to be another series of ups and downs (quite literally for Hodgson) but in the end both Corona Extra Honda Riders put in strong rides with Neil Hodgson finishing sixth and Jake Holden right behind in seventh.

Morning warm-up saw Hodgson on top of the leader-board for quite a while and Holden close behind. The bad luck of Saturday again struck Jake and after half a dozen laps his bike started misfiring and his session finished without his crew getting it fixed and  Jake getting back on track. Still his short time on the bike showed his pace was still hot! Afterwards the crew found an electrical fault which they were able to correct.

The Superbike race turned out to be an exercise in confusion and mishaps with a bizarre miss-start by a number of riders and then the flag never dropping! After they all lined up again the start went off but saw Neil getting taken out by a crashing Bostrom on the second turn. After what seemed an age the red flag came out but not before the "Safety Car" almost caused a major pile-up by driving on the race line in the blind turn one corner as the bikes came round at full speed. The red flag allowed Neil to get back to the pits and his crew to fix the bike, making the restart. This time the start went off OK and both Neil and Jake were in the hunt with the front pack. The race became a bit of a procession after Hodgson and Holden each took a position and held them to the end of the race. Neil almost caught Hayes on the last lap for fifth but his effort came up a bike-length short by the flag. Jake had been able to dispatch May for seventh but was not able to close significantly on Hodgson by the flag in the turn two crash-shortened race. Still both riders were able to show pace to run at the front and give notice that they will be a force to be reckoned with in the upcoming races!


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