His career:
Neil started riding a TY80 when he was just five years
old and had started motocross racing by the time he
was nine. He spent some time in GPs and Superbikes before
GSE found him and he went to the British Superbikes
with them with fourth in the series in 1999. He then
went on to a nail-biting victory in the series in 2000
after an epic, season-long battle with Chris Walker.
2001 saw Neil back in World Superbikeswith GSE and against
incredible competition he made fifth place in the world
rankings. Another season with GSE in World Superbikes
followed in 2002 and despite not claiming any wins,
Neil was a front-runner throughout the year, eventually
finishing third overall in the standings. These performances
were enough to earn him a place in the factory Ducati
Fila team in the 2003 World Superbike Championship,
in which he claimed victory at Assen just days after
the birth of his first child.
In 2004 Ducati appointed D’Antin
MotoGP Team as an official satellite team and one of
their Desmosedicis would be ridden by Neil Hodgson.
