Neil Hodgson was the youngest-ever British 125 champion. Here he stands in the GP paddock in 1995. file image

Q You were out of school, working at what we'd call a construction laborer and racing at the same time. I wonder, what was your relationship with the guys on the work crew? You're this kid, low man on the totem poll. Then ...

A When I was still building. It was really strange, because the British championship actually got shown on national television. I never really talked too much about it at work. They just knew I raced bikes on the weekend. Then I was like, "Oh, it'll be on television on Sunday, on BBC2," and they put it on. This is like one of four channels in England. It was on Channel 2. So the guys I'm working with, initially I was the young, cheeky apprentice who got all the shit jobs. When they watched it, they couldn't believe it. They were just like, "Wow! My God! You're on TV!"

They'd always come out with silly comments, like they'd watch a race, and if I didn't win, they'd say - I'll never forget it, they'd say, "Why don't you just brake a bit later? Wait 'til the guy brakes, then you brake after him."

Oh, thanks, guys, I'd never thought about that.

That's the sort of—guys who've got no idea—watching a race. "Well, why doesn't he just brake after him into the last corner?"

Q. How long did you work into your racing career?

A Until I turned professional in '93 the first year I did World Championship racing.

Q. You were working through 1992?

A. When I won the (British 125) championship, yeah. You didn't do as much testing or anything. You just turned up. So I didn't really - the boss was quite understanding, and I had a little bit of time off work. I missed the odd Monday morning, I couldn't get back, and a couple of times I got injured, and I went to work. It was a bit difficult, but the boss was pretty understanding. He'd seen me on television, so he let me go a bit.

Q. Racing career-wise, what were you thinking at this time?

A I was just thinking it would be great not to have to work, because it was shit. It was hard. You can imagine being a builder in England. Winter was hard. And I was a laborer. You can imagine. Carrying, digging, that's all you do all day. My days, sometimes you'd turn up and it'd be like, "2,000 brick blocks have been dropped there, and we need them (pointing) there." And that's it. "Shit, that's about five days' work!"

But, unlike a lot of kids—certainly the newer generation—don't feel sorry for me for my three years' work. I'm not saying that. But they've not done a day's work in their life. They've not got a clue. They don't know the value of money. I know. I know the grass isn't greener. I know how hard it is. I left school with no qualifications, so I wasn't going to slide into being a lawyer or earning this sort of money. I was destined to be doing that for the rest of my life. Really. And it's nothing to be ashamed of. I'm not ashamed of that. That's why I say it. But it's hard, in winter, in England, when you're shifting those 2,000 bricks for five days.

So yeah, I was just hoping, thinking, "I think we've got a chance of doing something here." Because at the time, I was the youngest British champion—18. No one had won the British championship at 18.

"I was the biggest fan racer you've ever seen. I couldn't wait for my practice to finish so I could watch the other practices. I've got my free ticket. I've got my paddock pass, I could just walk anywhere I wanted to."

Q. You went 125 Grand Prix racing, right?

A Yes. My dad completely - and this was fantastic - instead of just being the champion in England and riding around with the #1 plate, my dad's like, "Right, we do Grands Prix next."

I remember asking him, "Well, how are we going to do that?!"

"Don't know, don't know that one yet," he said, "but we'll apply."

So we applied and got an entry. So all we had to do was generate about $60-70,000. That's what it would cost to do a season. So we got some sponsors, and my mum and dad re-mortgaged the house. And at this time I got hooked up with Roger Burnett, who's my manager, and he put some of his personal money into it, which is pretty rare to get a manager to actually pay you. But he saw some potential, and thought we could do something. So that was it. We started doing Grands Prix.

Q. Your dad ran that team and tuned the bike, right? In Grands Prix?

A. Yeah. Doing everything. Doing everything, and still working, which is bizarre. He was a director of a company - a small company, they only employ about 12 people. It's like a paint spraying company. That's still what he does now. He had all his holidays at once - we'd race on a Sunday, and we'd drive through the night so he could get back to work on Monday. Almost, now, it doesn't happen any more, stuff like that. We were maybe the last year of that.

Q. What was it like in the van that year?

A. Mega. Mega. It was a dream come true. Absolute paradise. Because by then I knew who Kevin Schwantz was, and I loved him. And Rainey, and Doohan. I was the biggest fan racer you've ever seen. I couldn't wait for my practice to finish so I could watch the other practices. I've got my free ticket. I've got my paddock pass, I could just walk anywhere I wanted to. It was mega, honestly. I was only 19, and just really loved the opportunity. Never forget standing outside the garages looking at everybody. I loved every minute of it.

Q. Which were your favorite tracks, or which ones did you find the most challenging?

A I liked most of the tracks. I really enjoyed just - it was difficult learning all the new tracks. I found it very difficult in Malaysia, I'll never forget that, because I'd never been into a hot country before. I'd never been on holiday or anything, because we always raced motocross or the Championship, so we'd never been on holiday, and I'd never been anywhere hot. So when I first went to Spain, I couldn't believe how hot that was. But then we went to Malaysia, where it's - it's serious heat. And I died. I just could not believe. My dad died. We're all just like, "This is horrendous." Because we were a privateer team, we literally were in these shacks behind the garages. It was just horrendous. But I've not got one bad memory of that year. I just loved every bit of it.

Q. So in that era, the dominant British rider would have been Fogarty?

A. Niall Mackenzie, he was a top GP guy, and he took me under his wing. He was really just incredible with advice. He talked to me like a friend. This was Niall Mackenzie, he was like a hero to me. I could go and sit in his motor home. I was joking, knocking on his door, "I bet you think I'm a cheeky bastard, sit here and ask you for a coffee." I'd sit down and just listen, because I was just so ...

He introduced me to Kevin Schwantz one time. I'll never forget that feeling. Not knowing what to say. In fact, that year he took me round - we were on a campsite in Italy, and he took me 'round to Kevin Schwantz's motor home, and I walked in, sat down in front of Kevin Schwantz, and I was with David Jeffries, who unfortunately got killed in the TT. We both just sat there and I just couldn't stop talking. Couldn't stop asking questions. It was like someone said, "You've now got five minutes with your all-time hero. Don't screw it up. Ask as many questions as you can." I just sat down - and David Jeffries, years on after, used to always do impressions of me. It seemed like I just sat down and just said, "Sowhatdoyoudofortuningandwhatdoyou
eatwheredoyougowhatdoyoudowhatisthatl ikehowdoyouslidewhatdoyoudo...". It was funny, but sort of embarrassing.

Kevin didn't get a chance to breathe.

Q. Did he answer your questions?

A. Yeah. He was just absolutely incredible. Like Kevin Schwantz is. He was spot on.

Q. How was your mental strength in this period?

A Really strong, really. Because I realized, even at that level, I actually wasn't too bad. And I thought, "Shit, I'm not too bad at this. This is as good as it gets." And I was on a steady privateer Honda, riding against full factory bikes at the time. I was getting eaten alive on the straights.

But I was by this stage developing into a man. I all of a sudden went from being a midget to quite a big guy. I gained a lot of weight - gained weight, gained muscle. My mental state was really good, really positive. I had some great results that year. When I say "great results," a great result then was a 10th. Out of 40 of the world's best. I had quite a few top 15 finishes. A 10th at Donington, my home track, where I knew where I was going.

Q. The 125 class then was cutthroat.

A It was incredible. That was when two seconds could be the whole grid, top 40. And they were hard men. Martinez, Carter, all those guys. Bloody hell to race against.

Q. So how did the Grand Prix experience end?

"It's all a true story - I turned up at Argentina. I'd raced Laguna Seca two weeks before. I went from riding a 125, having never ridden a 500, never ridden a Superbike, going down pit lane for the first free practice on a two-stroke 500 with carbon fiber brakes. And as you're going down pit lane Doohan comes past you..."

A It ended really bad, actually. Because the following year - I'd had a great year, and the following year went all wrong. We managed to get a factory kit for the bike off Honda, and it was the year that the kit went all wrong. It had happened in the past season, I found this out later. The kits didn't work, and we'd spent all the team's budget on buying this kit, which was about £40,000.

Q Is that the one where they gave everybody wire wheels, that kit?

A No. There's been a few bad ones over the years. So we'd spent the team's budget on this kit, because we knew I was as fast as anyone, the top guys, round the corners, but I kept getting eaten alive on the straights. So we went for this kit, and that let us down big style, and I put on a lot of weight then. I did go off on being - I'd turned completely into a man. And I went from probably weighing - I weighed what I weigh now, pretty much. Seventy kilos. And the 125 World Champion was 46 kilos. And you didn't have to add weight in them days or anything. So I didn't stand a chance. And actually, my performances were worse than the year before, which was really annoying.

But, right at the end of the year, Kevin Schwantz crashed at Laguna Seca, and at the time, a rider called Sean Emmets, who was riding in the 500 class, got the chance to ride his bike for the last Grand Prix. So the knock-on effect was, they wanted someone to ride Sean Emmets' bike, so IRTA said, "Why don't you give Neil Hodgson a chance?"

I was talking about moving up to the 500 class the year after. And then there was a young English rider who got the chance to ride my bike, so it was a real knock-on effect.

So basically - it's all a true story - I turned up at Argentina. I'd raced Laguna Seca two weeks before. I went from riding a 125, having never ridden a 500, never ridden a Superbike, going down pit lane for the first free practice on a two-stroke 500 with carbon fiber brakes. And as you're going down pit lane Doohan comes past you, Daryl Beattie, Cadalora, Schwantz, you're just like, "What the f$#k!" This is as big a step as you could ever get in any rider's career. This is as big as it ever got. Because it weren't like "All right, yeah, you can have five days' testing" and you knew what the bike felt like. I didn't. I had no idea. I went on pit lane. All I could remember thinking is, "You've got to keep squeezing these brakes because they don't work at first," and they really didn't.

And I said to all my friends, because they'd not seen me much for two years on the TV, I said, "Watch the race, because you're going to see me. I'm definitely going to get lapped, so you'll see me. I might even get lapped twice." Anyway, I didn't get lapped - believe it or not - and I finished 15th. I got a point, which was pretty mega at the time.

Q. That season ended, and what happened the next year?

A That season ended, with the disappointment of the 125 disaster, but then the positive of "Shit, I just rode really well on a 500." So the following year I got a chance to ride for the WCM team, which was Niall Mackenzie's team. It was like a privateer effort, because we didn't get any factory bikes or anything. But that was the deal. I did a full season with them, which turned out to be one of my best seasons of my career. It would be in my top three, just for enjoyment and general surprise. Because again - a little bit like all the way back to '91, I got lapped in the first Grand Prix in Australia by Mick Doohan. And he came past me so fast, so sideways, and it was just, "Shit, I am not going to be able to do this." I thought I would be able to, but I'm actually completely out of my depth. And I went from that to just picking away, picking away, and I just went faster and faster and faster.

Q How was your relationship with the 500? Did it come easy?

A It came surprisingly easy. I had a really big crash in my first pre-season test of that year. The biggest highside I've ever had, still to this day. And it really beat me up. It threw me that far in front of the bike, I landed, I broke one of my ankles and badly dislocated the other one. So you can imagine. And then the bike hit me. It was one of them jobs. Just a horrible crash. And that was my only ever crash of the year. Weird. It just instantly taught me respect for the bike. And I really built up and built up and found the limit, found the limit. And surprisingly - which is weird for a two-stroke 500 - I didn't crash it again. Ever. I think the fact that I never crashed it again, I just kept getting more and more confident. That's why I eventually qualified on the front row with no problems. I got that confident on it in the end. I didn't even have qualifying tires. I'm just like, "Put me on a new soft race tire," and I'd go out and just nail it, and luckily, somehow, stayed on it.

Q How did that happen? Was it your motocross background?

A I don't know. I really don't know. Just fluky, really. Just happened. It just felt really easy. Or, it didn't feel really easy, but it came to me.

Q So you put that 500 on the front row, was that the final Grand Prix of the year? Argentina?

A It was the second to last. What happened at the Donington Grand Prix, I'd finished seventh, and I wasn't far behind the leaders. After that there was about a month off, and we got approached by Kenny Roberts. At the time, he was struggling with Dunlops, and he said, "We need more development with these tires. If we give you a factory engine, you can come and do some testing with us," and blah, blah, blah.

So all of a sudden my bike really improved. Well, to be totally honest, it didn't actually improve that much. I thought it was going to improve loads. So I went testing. I went to Mugello, testing with Luca Cadalora. Which was again a bit weird, because I was only 21 at the time. Now, 21 doesn't seem young. But at the time, that was still really young. Because I'd only started at 16. So the last three races I had a semi-factory bike. It still wasn't all singing, all dancing, but it was a lovely bike.

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