Okay, actually he didn't say that Mat could do it in his sleep, but in the log of a web chat that Ducati's Neil Hodgson did last week for the British tabloid The Sun, he said that Mladin would win the World Superbike championship in his first season, "and given the right opportunity he could be successful in MotoGP".

Hodgson also stated that US tracks are tougher than he expected, as is the competition, that Valentino Rossi is the best rider in the world and may race F1 one day and that he feels a bit underpaid when he sees a golfer winning a million dollars for one game of golf. He also opined that US television is "atrocious". While that last dig may be true, UK television (Do you still have to buy a permit to own a TV in England?) is at least equally as bad. And Neil-o, to filter out the bad TV, here's two words to consider: Tee Vo.

Hodgson expressed dismay that few people actually come to the races in America. He estimated crowds he's seen at 10-15,000 people.

Read the entire log of questions and answers here.

In other news, Ducati announced at their dealer show last weekend in Chicago that Hodgson has signed up for another year of US duty, revealing one of the biggest open secrets of the season (Yamaha's yellow-and-black GP bikes at Laguna being the other).