'Them's fightin' words!' Neil Hodgson gives frank and honest answers to many questions in this Soup-o interview. image by riders cramp

Neil Hodgson is a unique individual. Not only is he from the Isle of Man which, in and of itself, is quite unusual, but he is unique because of his breadth of experience.

100: Yeah, that's not good, is it?

SOUP: What happened?

100: Well, basically, the long and short of it is really I put my eggs in one basket mainly with Ducati and then that didn't come off. I found out basically at the final superbike round in France. So by then there were no decent rides in World Superbikes. I'd not turned my back on America, but there weren't many opportunities in America anyway, because there's only so many good rides and most people are on two-year deals, anyway. So it meant there were nothing really there.

And to be honest, out of all the rides on offer, the only good one that I turned down that I regret now was the Suzuki ride in England at Rizla Suzuki. That was on the plate for me to take. I turned it down because there were a couple of opportunities. One with Fogarty's team to stay in World Superbikes, which I was obviously keen to do, and there were a couple of other things on the fringe. Anyway, so I turned the Suzuki ride down. Everything else fell through, and here I am.

SOUP: Why did the Ducati thing fall through?

100: I don't know. You know, I've never gotten a definitive clear answer. "You didn't get the ride because we don't think you're good enough," or whatever. I didn't get anything. I heard lots of different things from lots of different people, and it were their decision to keep Lanzi, so...

SOUP: Is it a wrong passport job again?

100: I don't think it is too much. I don't think it is. I don't know.

SOUP: Money?

100: No, no. I think the problem with that one was there's about four or five different people all meet to discuss things like that - big decisions in Ducati. And I was told three were for me, two were against me, and I never got any names of who was and who wasn't. I heard all sorts of rumors—from "Bayliss didn't want me as a teammate"—I heard that rumor and I heard that from a really good, reliable source. I heard that much bullshit, you know. In the end, the fact of the matter is I didn't get the job. Am I bitter about it now? Not at all. I've let that one go, you know what I mean? That's racing, isn't it? I didn't get the job, so what? So I moved on.

When I were 30, I'd say I have two or three good years left in me. Now I genuinely think I'll be able to race till I'm Troy Bayliss's age—38.

SOUP: When you got here this weekend (Donington WSBK), did you get a bit of a tug, you know, knowing that you weren't going to race?

100: I've had it it for two weeks, knowing I'm coming here, because I didn't want to come here. It's funny, I don't like going to race meetings when I'm not racing. So you rarely see me at a BSB round walking around. Some riders like to go and watch, or go and see friends. I hate all that, which is quite weird. I like watching racing on TV, but I hate being at a race meeting not racing. But I don't like actually coming to a race meeting and not being employed. It's horrendous, just horrendous. I've said it a couple times today already, I don't know if I've said it to you, but it's like being a former alcoholic and you keep getting invited to go to the bar with your friends drinking, but you're a reformed alcoholic and you can't drink. Do you know what I mean?

SOUP: I do know what you mean, yeah.

100: That's just what it feels like, so it's horrible. I'm not enjoying one bit of it, to be honest. Actually, once I got on the bike and put my helmet on and did a parade lap - I only used three gears - I enjoyed riding the bike because it was the first time I've ridden a bike since I've been in America. So I quite enjoyed that, but...

SOUP: How was your time in America?

100: It was good. You know, I had a really good time. There were a couple of really difficult periods where, well, I did struggle with the bike a bit. No, I didn't struggle with the bike. We struggled because the bike and the team wasn't competitive enough, really. Having said that, nobody was, compared to the Suzuki setup. When you get out there and you see the Suzuki setup and the Suzuki riders—even Honda with their bike, Ducati, Kawasaki, Yamaha—everyone's playing catch up to them.

SOUP: Why?

100: They just seem superior. Whatever they do with that bike, they've got it just perfect for America. All these little advantages, the acceleration, the change of direction, they've got the bike spot on. It just works so good. They've pretty much got a second a lap on everyone. So wherever you went, you're always battling for third. So it was almost like a win was third place, which actually took the fun out of it because you were only talking about doing a domestic championship and you're expecting yourself to be winning. And knowing that a good day was third, and a bad day was fifth, and that was basically my two years—a sort of different two years.

SOUP: I don't think any racer likes that type of situation, do they?

100: No, it was horrible, it was really horrible. It was the realization - knowing that, "f**k, I've got this for two years." Because I knew after my first year my bike weren't going to change. I was going to have the same bike for the following year - getting out accelerated everywhere, changing direction, losing out to that Suzuki. And it made it worse because Mladin was, actually off the bike he weren't too bad, but he was quite arrogant on the bike and a few times he shook his head at me and all that lot, which made me more determined to try and beat him, but you couldn't. You know, so it was like...

SOUP: That was a frustrating period for you as well, then. What's it going to take for everybody to catch up with that Suzuki?

100: The teams have got to have a serious look at themselves. I think Honda America, and I think Yamaha, all those teams, they've got to have a serious look at themselves, and they've got to raise their game. They've got to do more testing, they've got to get the bike to work better on those tracks. You know, the Suzuki team I believe hasn't changed for a lot of years. It's got the same personnel - real experienced guys, Mat Mladin's men - that really works well and they're great as teammates. Brilliant. And the Suzuki's a good package anyway, but they are by far - it's like they're the most experienced team.

SOUP: Did you not enjoy anything about being out in America?

100: No, I did—I enjoyed a lot. I really, really liked it—really liked it. Everything about the championship is really easy except the racing. Because there's very little spectators. So you'd fly out the day before, go to your hotel, go to the track - everything was dead easy. You could sort of turn up, I could turn up on race day like half an hour before practice starts - drive to the track, show them your pass, get straight in. You know, there are no...

SOUP: Traffic jams?

100: No, no traffic jams. You can walk around the paddock and see very few spectators—it's weird. There's very few races. There's only like 10 or 11 races in the year, spread out. It's actually quite an easy championship.

SOUP: How would that compare with a season in BSB then? British Superbikes?

100: Having said that, British Superbikes I found really easy when I did it, because I'd always done world championship racing. When you've had to travel to Australia and back to Germany, then test there and do that. Anything compared to that - for me to fly from the Isle of Man to England to race in England, I just find really easy. That was the biggest thing I missed about racing in England. I did two years in England.

SOUP: Having it on your back door?

100: Yeah, being home Sunday night.

SOUP: But America's a big continent.

100: Yeah, yeah, so BSB's even easier. I'm not talking about anything at all about the racing, I'm just talking about the logistics for a rider, what you've got to do. I found BSB real easy, and I really enjoyed it. I remember talking to Steve Hislop some years ago when he was offered a GP ride. I told him he'd really struggle. I didn't mean the racing, but the lifestyle. I wasn't being funny but I told him he had it really easy racing in Britain and it would hit him hard when he suddenly had to travel everywhere and test all over the place.

SOUP: Yeah, traveling takes a lot out of you, doesn't it? And then to have to focus on the race?

100: Yeah, exactly. It's definitely not easy.

SOUP: So, what are you doing this year?

100: Well not much, really. At the moment, I'm sort of really thinking I've got to start working - I am working on trying to get something sorted for next year so I'm not caught in this position again. Really, that's my priority.

SOUP: Yeah, start early. How old are you now?

100: 33.

SOUP: Yeah.

100: I'm a real 33. I've had this conversation a couple times today. Speaking to Paulo Casoli about it earlier, and he said. "33? No..."

And I went, "Yeah."

And he went, "No...."

I'm like, "I am. I'm 33."

SOUP: As opposed to a Chris Walker 33?

100: Yeah, there's lots of riders that tweak their ages here and there, knock a year off here or there. I've never done that. I started when I was 16 - Easter weekend in 1990. You know, that's when I was 16.

SOUP: And why do racers lie about their age?

100: I think in the olden - well not in the olden days - I think in general, if you're younger you're perceived to have more of a life. So for a manufacturer to get involved with you, I guess their perception is there can be a bit more of a longevity. Like, "Well, he's only 19 - we can nurture this rider and we do all this..."

SOUP: Get their money's worth out of a rider's career?

100: Yeah, possibly. But it's a funny one really, because you can look at the fastest guy in this paddock today has just turned 38—he'll be 38 today. So it sort of means nothing. Steve Hislop in his day, at 40—whatever-he-was, 41, 40? I don't even know what he was, but...

SOUP: Frankie Chili.

100: Frankie Chili, you know. Reynolds, before he retired he hadn't lost anything. He would still die to beat you, you know what I mean?

SOUP: So you think you'll still be doing it...?

100: Yeah, I do. I didn't. I do now, though I didn't at all...

SOUP: When didn't you?

100: Probably the last two or three years.

SOUP: Really, why?

100: Because...

SOUP: You were getting fed up?

100: Yeah, yeah, because you do this, you do... I've been doing racing since I was nine, every year. So you get to the point where you think, "OK, it'd be nice to do something different. I've f**king had enough of this shit." You know what I mean - the traveling, hard work, the stress, and the pressure. And then someone takes it away from you - F**k, you realize how much you're not ready for it. You know, it's weird.

Hopefully I'm going to look back on this and say, "God, I needed that—about a year off." Not that I'm relaxing or anything like that. I'm probably training harder - I'm just intense, just like I'm racing. But I think I needed this to realize how much I love the sport. Not even how much I love the sport - it's how much I love the competition. It's what I'm about, it's what makes me get out of bed in the morning, it's what you do everything for. It's weird, it's like the only direction in your life.

SOUP: You're born with a competitive nature.

100: Yeah, well I can give you an example, it's true. Last weekend just gone, I did a stubblefield Motocross race at home—competitive. I finished second, won one of the races. But, like, would die to try and win. Weekend before that I did a mountain bike race, which is one of the toughest things you'll do because you set off and you've got two hours at your maximum heart rate. Weekend before that I had off. The weekend before that I did a mountain bike race. I've got to be doing something. I've got to be challenging myself - against myself normally. It's weird, isn't it? My wife's going, "What are you doing?" Because I wake up Sunday morning nervous because I've got a mountain bike race, feeling sick. My wife's going, "What are you doing? Are you trying to prove this to someone?" I'm like, "No, I'm doing it for myself." I just have to do it. It's what I'm about, you know?

SOUP: So you felt the same waking up for that ironman mountain bike race as you did waking up for a World Superbike round?

I've been lucky. I've been lucky because I've been a factory rider for a lot of years. So far I've done very well out of the sport. I've been very fortunate with a lot of property I've bought. I mean, over the last ten years you'd have to be a bit of an asshole not to have made money on property. I've been lucky, I've put a lot into property. I've made as much out of property as I probably have out of racing, so I am financially in a great position.

100: Exactly the same.

SOUP: Amazing.

100: Exactly the same. Get your head around that - what's all that about? Is that not stupid? I mean, pole position at Donington Park with a hundred thousand people there expecting you to win, and I feel just as nervous doing a stubblefield race on a motocross bike with four people watching.

SOUP: So that's something that's built into your nature and you can't deny it.

100: No.

SOUP: And now you've been taught that you can't deny it by this year out.

100: Yeah, so what it's going to do, literally, I think it's going to prevent me from retiring too early and regretting it at a later date. There's nothing worse than the "I'm retiring. No, I'm not. I'm retiring. No, I'm not."

SOUP: Yeah, the old comeback.

100: Yeah, I think it will hopefully, hopefully stretch my career out. When I were 30, I'd say I have two or three good years left in me. Now I genuinely think I'll be able to race till I'm Troy Bayliss's age - 38. I don't see why not, you know. I think if you're fit, healthy, and if you've still got that attitude where I still want to prove to myself, I'll be around.

SOUP: What do you think of the championship this year?

100: I think it's really competitive. It's good to see the championship on the up again. It's great to see the manufacturers make more of a push, to get properly involved. So it looks tough, it looks really, really tough.

SOUP: It's a healthy 20th birthday year for SBK, then.

100: Yeah

SOUP: And you're not part of it. (Neil doesn't seem to hear this)

100: Credit to them. You know in 2004 when they said they were doing that tire thing, I was well against it and I'm sure everybody was. It just seemed like a real bad direction to go in. You know, they pulled it round, haven't they? All credit to them.

SOUP: So you think the one-tire rule was actually a good thing?

100: I do, yeah. It's worked, hasn't it? You can't say it's not worked. Especially the year before when I'd won, and me and Ruben Xaus clearly had an advantage with our tires. I know because I was riding the bike. You know, we did. We had an advantage and no one wants to say that, do they? It's better to eliminate that factor, you know, the tire advantage.

SOUP: So do you now have a sort of thing in you that wants to come out and prove it without that tire advantage?

100: Yeah, I would love to. I would love to. Don't get me wrong, I'm still pleased with what I achieved. I don't sit and think, "Well, I think I wouldn't be fast." I would be fast. I was the best rider around at the time and I got the best ride. And I proved that from the year before, finishing third behind Bayliss and Edwards. Beating Haga, and...

SOUP: Bostrom.

100: Bostrom, Xaus, and Corser. You know, clearly beating them. So I put myself in that position to get the best opportunity, and I made the most of it. So I'm not bitter about that. I would be bitter if I got that opportunity and f**ked it up, you know what I mean? (laughs)

SOUP: As some have.

100: Yeah, yeah, exactly. But, yeah, I would still love to.

SOUP: Would you go back to American racing?

100: Yeah, I'd go back to America and race, and try and win the championship. And I'd race in World Superbikes to try and win the championship. I've not got - to be totally honest—I've not got any real aspirations for MotoGP. I'm a realist. I know who I am, how old I am, and my past history. I'm not gonna get a good ride in MotoGP. No point in bullshitting myself, going "Yeah, I think I'm going to be Rossi's teammate." It ain't going to happen. And if I did get a ride, it'd be a very B ride, C ride. I don't want to do that.

SOUP: No, you'd rather race on a good bike in a domestic championship. Four stroke championship.

100: If somebody said you've got the Ilmor, or you've got the Suzuki in England. And the Ilmor's a million pounds, and riding BSB is a hundred thousand pounds—I'm exaggerating—I'd go for the million-pounds! (laughs)

SOUP: (Laughs) Now there's an admission!

100: The Ilmor's, say, half a million pounds, and the ride in England is a hundred grand - I'd go for the hundred grand. Because I know that every morning I wake up, I have a chance of winning. Where if you're riding the Ilmor - and no disrespect to the Ilmor - it's just a fact that you're in for a real ass-kicking.

SOUP: Yes, so you would place more value on the competition than the financial rewards?

100: Yeah, because I've been lucky. I've been lucky because I've been a factory rider for a lot of years. So far I've done very well out of the sport. I've been very fortunate with a lot of property I've bought. I mean, over the last ten years you'd have to be a bit of an asshole not to have made money on property. I've been lucky, I've put a lot into property. I've made as much out of property as I probably have out of racing, so I am financially in a great position. It's funny how money's always motivated me in the past, but it doesn't make you any happier. I know it's an old cliché, but it's a fact. But now I've not got racing, I realize how much it is the racing, not the money. It's funny. It is funny.

SOUP: So money was motivating you previously.

100: Money's always been a motivator to me, yeah. Throughout your career, I was always trying to earn as much money as I could so that myself and my wife and my daughter could have a nice life after racing. Because as a motorcycle racer, like most riders, I'm under qualified to do anything else. It's like, I can ride a bike and I'm pretty good at that, but I couldn't really work in an office. I couldn't somehow generate a job to earn a hundred grand a year, but I can earn some decent money racing.

SOUP: What about management, team management, stuff like that in the future?

100: You know, I have no interest in that at all.

SOUP: I mean, this is exactly what Carl Fogarty said to me about four times before he retired. Each year he would say, "No, I'm never gonna do that."

100: It looks too hard, to be honest. I think it looks to be too hard for a very little return. I think you're doing the same job—you're doing all the travel, all the hustle, and all that. I don't know. I'm pretty sure I don't want to do that.

SOUP: What will you do?

100: No idea, no idea. All I know is I don't want to retire yet. I'm sort of tempted to start, to try and get into doing things now, but then I keep talking myself out of it. Because I keep saying to myself I don't want to commit to anything else yet, because I can't focus on it, because I'm still trying to focus on my racing. Even though I'm not.

SOUP: So what would be your ideal ride next year? Your absolute best choice?

100: Any factory ride in World Superbikes or AMA. I haven't got an ideal, I really haven't. And I'm not just saying that to be politically correct. I think with a ride for any of the factory teams in any of those championships, I'd be pretty happy.

SOUP: Do you often get comments about the level of competitiveness in this championship vs. the level of competitiveness in that championship, where you've been in two of the major domestic championships and the major world production-based championship?

100: I've been in them all, really.

SOUP: Yeah, because you've also been in MotoGP.

100: MotoGP, and BSB, and...

SOUP: So, what's the truth of it?

100: The truth without any bullshit, without trying to say the right thing: by far in my opinion MotoGP is still head and shoulders—talent-wise and difficulty-wise—above any other championship. It's still a huge step—that's number one. Not that it's very shocking I've said that, because everyone's pretty sure of that.

And then second, I've got to say second is becoming very close-fought because obviously this championship (WSB) is getting stronger, but then if you look at BSB it's getting stronger again also. I think this year is going to be even harder in BSB and they're going to go even faster. And AMA is, something like the last two seasons, bloody difficult—really difficult and then really fast. So, they're almost on the level. I'd probably say Superbikes have just snuck it this year with the addition of Biaggi, just adding a bit more credibility.

SOUP: How do you think Biaggi is coping with being a Superbike rider?

100: I think he's doing really well so far, yeah.

SOUP: Are you surprised by that?

100: No, because I knew Barros wouldn't do anything absolutely incredible. I knew Biaggi would, and out of four races he's got three podiums...

SOUP: Why'd you say that about Barros and Biaggi?

100: Because you need to look at the statistics of races against wins and podiums, and Barros is a racer who rides around and finishes fifth. Biaggi is, was, a winner for the first half of his career. Then on the back parts of his career he was on the podium in MotoGP every time out almost. You know what I mean? So, different class of rider.

SOUP: Were you surprised that he took a job in World Superbikes?

100: Very.

SOUP: What surprised you about that?

100: I'd have thought he'd step away from the sport. I'd have thought he wouldn't have lowered himself—and that's not my words—that's what my perception about what you think of the championship. But having said all that, just to sort of contradict myself, he's obviously experienced what I'm experiencing when he sat here. And that's, for me, actually my life is pretty shit without racing. I didn't realize how much I needed it. I'm guessing that's what he was saying, so I'm guessing at this point of last year he started to talk to his manager and say, "I want to f**king race." You know? And then he's probably saying, "I'm not going to get the best rides in MotoGP, so where am I going to get the best rides? Let's look at Superbikes." I guess that's what's happened—I'm obviously speculating.

SOUP: If Rossi took a job on a Superbike team, would he be the World Champion first year out?

100: Yeah, yeah.

SOUP: AMA, as well?

100: Rossi?

SOUP: Yeah.

100: Yeah, Rossi's the best rider in the world.

SOUP: Yeah? Definitely?

100: By far, by far. Again, I don't think that's a very shocking statement. But I think he's clearly head and shoulders about the rest. Clearly. Over anybody close to him—he really is.

SOUP: That's all to do with natural talent?

100: f**k knows - I wish I could bottle it, though. No, it is. It is. It's definitely natural talent. It's everything. He's got the package. He's a great test rider, which is overlooked a lot. So he always gets the best out of his bike. He can test parts. And he can ride a motorcycle on the limit, every lap, for 28 laps.

I can ride a motorcycle on the limit, but not every lap. Not every corner. Not for 28 laps. You know, I can do great one-off laps. I can string five good laps together. But to be able to consistently do it like he does, he's definitely, obviously - surprise, surprise - he's someone special. He is just f**king incredible.

SOUP: Is there anybody else like him that you'd pick out?

100: No, not one.

SOUP: No up and coming racers?

100: Pedrosa, yeah, you'd have to say Pedrosa. Yeah, but no one else. Not clearly.

SOUP: No one else but Pedrosa? Yeah, he's quite a talent.

100: On a different subject all together, I think they should put weights on Pedrosa's bike, though. Seriously, all joking apart, I think he's got such an unfair advantage it's not even funny. To have, I don't know how many kilos—ten, fifteen kilos lighter than the next rider—it's such an advantage.

SOUP: Especially when power-to-weight ratio is so crucial.

100: Yeah, it's such an advantage.

SOUP: Where do you think that advantage comes in?

100: Acceleration and braking—you don't have to be a genius to work out that if you've got fifteen kilos less mass to start with when you arrive at the end of a straight, you know scientifically that bike and rider is going to able to brake at a later point.

SOUP: So Dani should be forced to eat pies before each race?

100: He should.

SOUP: Wear a diving belt?

100: He should go to Burnley for a night out with the lads, beers and kebabs and all that.

To Be Continued Later