Jake Holden brought Honda its first AMA Superstock wins during the 2008 season, aboard a Corona-sponsored CBR1000RR. The way he tells it, he thought he was all set to return to Corona Extra Honda Racing for the second year of his 2008-2009 contract. That apparently all changed when the team issued a February 3rd press release announcing that its CBR10000R Superbike would be ridden by former Superbike World Champion Neil Hodgson. Holden showed up for a team test at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California on February 3rd anyway and reported to the Corona Extra Honda Racing pit area with his leathers on, ready to ride. He found two motorcycles with Hodgson’s number #100 on them, along with a crew (contracted by American Honda) working with Hodgson. Holden’s fate is apparently now in the hands of his lawyers, who Holden says got involved at the end of the 2008 season to help him collect money he was owed by the team under the terms of his contract and who may seek to enforce his contract with the team. Corona Extra Honda Racing principal Tim Saunders, meanwhile, initially declined to comment on the Holden situation Tuesday afternoon at Auto Club Speedway, but then added, “It’s done. It’s over. If he wants to go about things like that, let him. It’s for the lawyers to handle now.” Holden is not the first rider to claim he had problems collecting contract money owed by the team. Jimmy Moore rode for Saunders’ Corona-sponsored race team for the complete 2001, 2002 and 2003 AMA seasons, and for part of the 2004 season, winning the AMA 750cc Supersport Championship in 2001 and 2002. “I think the best way to put it is that at the end of every year there was always something left that the team owed me,” said Moore when reached at his Eugene, Oregon home today. “Always. It was that way every year. When the end of the year came around there was always money left on the table that they were supposed to pay me but didn’t pay me. But I was afraid to get a lawyer and fight for it because I was (going to be) on the team again the next year so I just sucked it up and let it go. They still owe me money. “What I can’t understand is, if they didn’t have the money to pay Jake Holden the money they owed him for 2008 under the contract, why do they have the money to pay Hodgson?” asked Moore. Matt Lynn rode in AMA Superbike for the Corona Extra Honda Racing team in 2008. Lynn says that he had to hire a lawyer to make sure he had a racebike for the final AMA Superbike round of the year (at Laguna Seca), and to make sure he got paid what he was supposed to receive under his contract with the team. “I got all my money, but I hired a lawyer right off the bat and let Tim know that I wasn’t f–king around,” Lynn said when reached by phone today. “There were a couple times when Tim was over the due date a little and I would just send him an e-mail and tell him know, ‘Hey, you’re late.’ “I’m happy I’m not one of those guys that haven’t gotten paid. I don’t know what happened with the Jake Holden scenario other than what I read on Roadracingworld.com, but I felt bad for Jake. “I did have a problem with Tim,” continued Lynn. “He got a little out of shape because I took a set of my leathers off the truck to go do a track day and didn’t ask his permission. His opinion was that everything on the truck was his and he basically called me a thief. I sent an e-mail back saying that I was disappointed in how the team was being run and the DNFs I was having and it kind of escalated from there. He insinuated that I wasn’t gonna have a ride for the last Laguna round (of 2008), so that’s when I had to hire a lawyer.” Gary Mason rode for the Corona Extra Honda Racing team early in 2007, and hired a lawyer to resolve a contract dispute with the team. Mason could not be reached for comment Thursday.