An interview with... Neil Hodgson

2003 WorldSBK champion Neil Hodgson answered some questions at the MotorcycleLive! event in Birmingham

At the MotorcycleLive! event in Birmingham, I ran into 2003 WorldSBK champion and current TNT Sports analyst Neil Hodgson, who kindly took time to answer a few questions for this project. As somebody who has ridden across various different championships and understands the difficulties it takes to get into Grand Prix racing from behind the scenes, Hodgson gave some great insight into the root of the problems currently facing British motorcycle riders attempting to get onto the ladder.

In your career you raced in British Superbikes, MotoAmerica, famously in WorldSBK and won the championship there before moving over to MotoGP for a season, how difficult is it to adapt between all those machineries?

It’s not that difficult to adapt. The hardest thing when you move from WorldSBK to MotoGP is getting the right team and getting the right opportunity, because back when I did it, let’s say, with the ‘non-factory bikes’ there was quite a big gap. I remember racing against Rossi and people like that and I didn’t stand a chance. The perfect example, when I raced in Superbikes, I raced against Nicky Hayden in America, like at the American round and I beat him. Nicky Hayden was no better than me at riding a motorcycle and I don’t mean that arrogantly. But then when I moved to MotoGP, he was on a factory Honda, and I was on a really average Ducati and I couldn’t get within a second a lap of him. So that’s the hardest thing, is getting the right opportunity and the right machinery.

And obviously in this country, it seems like our route is very superbike-oriented, obviously you go through BSB and hopefully graduate into WorldSBK or WorldSSP, is that a potential roadblock for riders that they don’t get to adapt to the GP ladder in the same way they do in Spain or Italy at an early age?

The question you’re asking is a question we’ve been asking for quite some time, as in we’ve had a problem for 15, 20 years if not more. The reality is, if you look at the way BSB is built up, it’s all about Superbikes. The BSB championship is British superbikes, the Spanish championship, their number one class was always Moto3, which is really hard to believe but that’s the reality of how the Spanish championship was built. All the TV time, all the attention and sponsorship went into the Moto3 teams whereas in our championships it’s all about Superbike teams. So, if you’re at the bike show now and you’re a good motorcycle racer it’s like an easier route to end up in Superbikes, and it’s a lot more difficult to end up in Grand Prix racing and it’s a lot more expensive to end up in Grand Prix racing. Unfortunately, now it could cost you almost a million pounds to end up there, so it’s really difficult.

Also, the reality is, I’m talking to you today, it’s a rainy, horrible November day. In Spain right now, the sun’s probably shining and right now on a Saturday, there will probably be, and I’m not exaggerating, more than 2000 kids under 15 years old riding around go-kart tracks on mini moto bikes, on pocket bikes. Whereas now how many people do you think are riding around in England today? I’m going to say zero. So, you’re always going to find more young talent and it’s just the reality.

I also get asked the question why aren’t there more women in racing, and it’s the same as why there’s not more British riders. It’s just a numbers game. If you have a pool of 5000 young Spanish kids to pick from and 500 British kids, the odds are always so much greater, and it’s the same with girls riding. The chance of picking 50 fast girls and to find one to get to Grand Prix racing, it’s going to be tough.

So what are some of the solutions that you can think of then? Of course your colleague at TNT Michael Laverty has set up the team and there’s recently the British minibike championship and the road to MotoGP, are these kinds of things that can help and what could they do a bit more?

I think it’s hard. It’s difficult. You need money into it, what Michael’s doing is really good and the minibike championships, the British Talent Cup, we just need more of the same really. There’s not that one magic answer that’s going to fix it unfortunately.