My life in bikes: Neil Hodgson

Ex-WSB champ and BT Sport frontman bares his biking soul to MCN

‘I don’t care if I look stupid I love my Confederate Wraith’

What’s your first memory of bikes?
My brother is a couple of years older than me and he had a field bike when we were kids. I was scared of it at first after I burnt my leg on the exhaust when I was about six. I had no interest in riding the bike at all but when I was eight my dad took me to a motocross race and I thought it was awesome.

Is that where you started racing?
Yes, in 1982 my dad bought me a year-old Yamaha YZ80 and I started competing in schoolboy motocross straight away. I was total crap. I wobbled around and cried. No-one thought for one second that I was a potential world champion that’s for sure. It took me two-and-a-half years to win my first race. By the time I was 13 I was winning everything, but I had to move up to a 125 and I just couldn’t ride one as I was too short and too light.

What went wrong?
Everything. I had a Suzuki RM125 and I hated that bike. It just smelt of hospitals to me as I was 14 and couldn’t stop crashing. It had a cut-out seat and soft fork springs, and in one race I hit a table-top jump flat out and landed so hard that I broke my tibia and fibula. I didn’t crash but rode back to the pits and fell off it. I told my dad I had broken my leg but he was so angry he just threw me and the bike into the van and drove home. I went to hospital when we got back and I’ve never been so relieved to break a leg! My dad felt well guilty and I still bring it up! I retired after that and assumed my racing career was over, so I went off to be a builder.

When did the road racing start?
When I was 16 my dad asked me if I wanted to try road racing. I told him I wasn’t bothered but he kind of pushed me into it and got me a Yamaha TZR125 race bike. I did a test at Three Sisters and really liked it. I did my first race at Langbar and wasn’t too bad. I went back to Three Sisters a week later and won a race. I got a proper Honda RS125 the year after and did the British 125 championship and was lapped by the fast guys at first but won the title in 1992. The RS125 was a really lovely bike to ride. I’ve still got that bike. Dad found it and completely restored it and it’s at the bottom of his stairs.

Young champion: 1992 Honda RS125 ‘Lovely to ride. My dad has it at home’

What was it like stepping up to 500s?
My first time on a 500GP bike was in Argentina and I thought I was going to die! I didn’t get lapped and I was ecstatic, but I literally couldn’t touch the throttle without highsiding. It was horrible and I hated it. The first race of the next season, when I signed for WCM ROC Yamaha, was at Eastern Creek and I got passed by Mick Doohan into the first turn; he pinned it and smoked the rear tyre all the way round. I loved the WCM bike, though, the feel from the front was awesome and I only crashed it once all year.

What was the worst bike you raced?
It wasn’t the worst bike I ever raced, it was the worst bike anyone ever raced and that was the Dantin Ducati Desmosedici in 2004. The bike was a total turd and the team had no money. It was a disaster. I even had to put out a fire on the grid with my water bottle.

And the best?
The GSE Ducati 996 from 2000. I made my career on that bike and I literally couldn’t crash it. When I went to the factory Ducati team in 2003 it was a new bike and I think I could have gone faster on the 2000 bike.

The best: 2000 GSE Ducati 996 ‘I literally couldn’t crash it’

What’s in the garage right now?
Nothing but I’m about to buy my Confederate Wraith back from a mate and I love that bike so much. I don’t care if I look like a stupid bellend while I’m riding it, I love the bike and I want it back. It’s the first bike in my life I just enjoy riding for the sake of it.