Neil Hodgson is in a state of shock over American Honda’s announcement that it will not field a factory team in the 2009 AMA Pro road racing series. “I found out Friday [December 12] night my time,” Hodgson told Roadracingworld.com Monday in a telephone interview from his home on the Isle of Man. “I’m eight hours ahead of California, so I guess it was Friday morning there. I found out at 10:00 p.m., right before I went to bed. I got a phone call from Ron [Heben, Road Race Team Manager] to tell me the bad news before anything leaked onto the Internet or before anyone called me. He thought it was the decent thing to tell me.” The “bad news” was that American Honda would not participate in the new-look AMA Pro road racing series in 2009 due to “the current global economic situation and its impact on Honda,” according to a statement released by the company at 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time Friday, December 12. “Obviously, I was shocked and stunned,” Hodgson continued. “It was not what I expected at all. What can you do?” Hodgson said he was stunned because he had essentially been told American Honda was going racing in 2009. “Roughly, a while back, maybe a few months ago, when there was a lot of uncertainty, we got past that and we were almost told like, ‘Don’t worry. We’ll race DMG or with MIC, but we’re going racing,'” said Hodgson. “That was what was pretty much told to me. At that point I breathed a big sigh of relief and thought, ‘At least I am racing,’ you know? So obviously before [the tire test at] Daytona and at Daytona I felt I wasn’t too worried. I felt pretty confident we were actually going racing.” American Honda’s announcement stated that it would continue to support satellite teams Corona Extra Honda and Erion Racing Honda in 2009, leading to the possibility of Hodgson, who is contracted through 2009, being assigned to ride for one of those outfits. Hodgson said he was receptive to that idea because he feels, based on his recent performance at the Daytona tire test, that the CBR1000RR is a potential winner. “I know there’s some strong teams out there,” said the former Superbike World Champion. “Both of those guys run a really strong outfit. If I go down that route then that’s the route I go down. I’ve got a contract with American Honda to go racing, so I’m assuming I’m going to go racing in some form. I’m hoping, anyway. “All I know is, I look to race. I believe Honda’s [CBR1000RR] is still the best road bike out there which will work for the DMG [2009 American Superbike] rules. I still believe we have a shot at winning the title if we were to go racing.” With only a few days until Christmas and the start of 2009, Hodgson is hoping American Honda can answer some of his many questions by the end of the week. “I’m hoping to get some answers this week as to what their plans are, if they’re going to try to push something down the satellite route or not do anything,” said Hodgson, who serves as his own business manager. “Basically, until I find out those answers I can’t make any plans myself.” But Hodgson was able to keep it all in perspective, saying, “I’m one of the fortunate ones. There’s millions of people across the world, really there’s tens of millions of people across the world who are out of work, have big mortgages to pay and have borrowed lots of money from the bank, and I’m very fortunate that I’m not one of those people. It’s certainly not the end of the world. I’m not doom and gloom. I genuinely feel pretty confident that something’s going to come off and I’ll be racing. I’m still training. I’ve been in the gym all weekend. I’m still fighting. I know it’s going to come. I was unlucky in 2007 to not get a ride, but it’s not going to happen again. I just know it’s not. I have a good feeling.”