Former Superbike World Champion Neil Hodgson will start the 67th Daytona 200 by Honda, his first-ever race on a 600cc motorcycle, from pole position in spite of crashing during Thursday’s qualifying session at Daytona International Speedway. The 34-year-old Englishman used a Dunlop qualifying tire on his factory Honda CBR600RR to lap the 2.9-mile road course in 1:39.347, a lap record for the newly-revised track, but when he mounted his final qualifying tire and saw a clear track ahead he pushed too hard in Turn Four and crashed. Uninjured, he picked up his bike, rode back to the pits and re-entered the session on his back-up machine but was unable to go any quicker. Second-fastest was Chaz Davies with a 1:39.436 on his Pirelli-shod Attack Kawasaki ZX-6R. Davies said he did his lap alone, rather than with a drafting partner because he said he has yet to master how to use the slipstream properly. Steve Rapp, the defending Daytona 200 Champion and Davies’ teammate, was third-quickest with a lap of 1:39.779. The final spot on the front row went to Hodgson’s teammate and five-time Daytona 200 winner Miguel Duhamel, who turned a 1:39.836 while using a Dunlop race tire on his CBR600RR and a two-rider draft. Duhamel had been 12th-fastest in Wednesday afternoon’s practice session. While Hodgson and Duhamel are only racing the Formula Xtreme class at Daytona, Erion Honda’s Josh Hayes will represent the Honda brand in the class all year. The two-time and defending AMA Formula Xtreme Champion will start the defense of his crown from fifth on the Daytona 200 grid thanks to a qualifying time of 1:39.879. Hayes’ teammate Jake Zemke qualified sixth with a 1:39.967 on his CBR600RR. Michael Barnes, who rode his Pirelli-shod 2007-spec Team M4 EMGO Suzuki GSX-R600, was seventh-fastest with a 1:40.431. Aaron Gobert took the final spot on the second row of the grid (eighth) with a lap of 1:40.469 on his Dunlop-equipped Rockwall Honda CBR600RR. Colombian rider Martin Cardenas was ninth-best with a 1:40.661 on his Pirelli-shod Team M4 EMGO Suzuki GSX-R600, while LeoVince Foremost Insurance Ducati’s Larry Pegram will start 10th after posting a 1:41.003 on his Pirelli-fitted 848. Daytona 200 by Honda AMA Formula Xtreme Championship Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Florida March 6, 2008 Provisional Group One Qualifying Results: 1. Neil Hodgson (Hon CBR600RR), Dunlop, 1:39.348 2. Chaz Davies (Kaw ZX-6R), Pirelli, 1:39.436 3. Steve Rapp (Kaw ZX-6R), Pirelli, 1:39.779 4. Miguel Duhamel (Hon CBR600RR), Dunlop, 1:39.836 5. Josh Hayes (Hon CBR600RR), Dunlop, 1:39.879 6. Jake Zemke (Hon CBR600RR), Dunlop, 1:39.967 7. Michael Barnes (Suz GSX-R600), Pirelli, 1:40.432 8. Aaron Gobert (Hon CBR600RR), Dunlop, 1:40.469 9. Martin Cardenas (Suz GSX-R600), Pirelli, 1:40.661 10. Larry Pegram (Duc 848), Pirelli, 1:41.003 11. Josh Day (Yam YZF-R6), Pirelli, 1:41.019 12. Tyler McDonald (Yam YZF-R6), Michelin, 1:41.948 13. Nicky Moore (Kaw ZX-6R), Pirelli, 1:42.042 14. Eric Wood (Duc 848), Dunlop, 1:42.164 15. Barrett Long (Duc 848), Dunlop, 1:42.249 16. David Anthony (Suz GSX-R600), Pirelli, 1:42.742 17. Taylor Knapp (Kaw ZX-6R), Pirelli, 1:42.840 18. Danny Eslick (Suz GSX-R600), Dunlop, 1:42.868 19. Tristan Palmer (Suz GSX-R600), 1:43.044 20. Bobby Fong (Suz GSX-R600), Michelin, 1:43.167 21. Gabor Rizmayer (Suz GSX-R600), Michelin, 1:43.348 22. Chad Lewin (Hon CBR600RR), Pirelli, 1:43.450 23. Rob Frost (Hon CBR600RR), 1:43.665 24. Tony Meiring (Yam YZF-R6), Michelin, 1:43.979 25. Steve Atlas (Hon CBR600RR), Dunlop, 1:44.042 26. Richard Cooper (BMW HP2 Sport), Pirelli, 1:44.154 27. Garrett Carter (Suz GSX-R600), Dunlop, 1:44.166 28. Bostjan Pintar (Yam YZF-R6), 1:44.379 29. Keith Marshall (Suz GSX-R600), 1:44.668 30. Bostjan Skubic (Yam YZF-R6), 1:44.771 31. Eduard Alberts (Hon CBR600RR), 1:45.273 32. Scott Ryan (Kaw ZX-6R), 1:45.453 33. Shane Narbonne (Tri Daytona 675), Dunlop, 1:45.509 34. Jonas McCluskey (Yam YZF-R6), 1:45.750 More, from a press release issued by Daytona International Speedway: Neil Hodgson Takes Pole For Daytona 200 By Honda DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. Neil Hodgson became the first British rider since 1974 to win the pole position for the 67th Daytona 200 By Honda AMA Formula Xtreme Series race on Thursday at Daytona International Speedway. Hodgson, who sat out last year’s motorcycle season unable to find a ride, toured the 2.9-mile road course aboard his factory No. 100 Honda at 105.086 mph, one minute, 39.347 seconds to earn the pole for Saturday’s 69-lap race. “It’s an honor, it’s a privilege,” Hodgson said. “It’s funny. Last year, I was here as a spectator. I was depressed and walking around jealous looking at all the riders. It’s weird. 12 months later here I am on the pole position. It doesn’t seem real.” Paul Smart was the last British rider to win the pole for the historic Daytona 200 back in 1974 aboard a Suzuki. “I’ve got to thank Honda for giving me this opportunity to give me a shot at this,” Hodgson said. “Hopefully, I can repay them this season with some hard riding and try to get some wins. If I can get the win Saturday, that would be absolutely awesome. I don’t know if that’s possible, racing with these guys. I’m looking forward to the race. I’ve watched it the last five years and always thought I wanted to be involved, it looks like a lot of fun.” Rounding out the front row was Attack Kawasaki riders Chaz Davies and Steve Rapp, the 2007 Daytona 200 winner, and five-time Daytona 200 champion Miguel Duhamel. Duhamel was looking to join Kenny Roberts as the only rider to have won four straight Daytona 200 By Honda poles. “It went really well,” Duhamel said. “Next time we go testing, I’m just going to test qualifying tires, and get better with them. They were really good, and I just didn’t take advantage of it.” The Daytona 200 By Honda will go green on Saturday at 2 p.m. with a field of 69 riders. Tickets are available online at www.racetickets.com, 1-800-PITSHOP or at the gate. More, from a press release issued by BMW Motorrad Motorsport News: Final qualifying, AMA Formula Xtreme series, Daytona 200 – March 6th Conditions: sunny/cloudy PROBLEMS IN PRACTICE, BUT BIG IMPROVEMENTS IN QUALIFYING. Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport’s four riders overcame problems in practice and ended qualifying well up the grid for the Daytona 200 race on Saturday. There will be seventeen rows of the grid for the race and the four riders managed to to take places on the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth rows. Fastest of the four is Richard Cooper, in 24th place, with Nate Kern 25th, German Rico Penzkofer 28th and Brian Parriott 30th. Fastest overall today is Neil Hodgson (Honda), with Chaz Davies (Kawasaki) second, Steve Rapp ((Kawasaki) third and Miguel Duhamel (Honda) fourth. Richard Cooper – 26th, 1:44.154 The week didn’t start well for me, because I managed to crash in the second session, bruising my left foot and knee in the process! But after that, things got better and we worked steadily on getting me and the bike comfortable. Every time out, we improved a little and, although we are going in the right direction, it would’ve been good to have a a bit more time. We know we can improvethe bike for sure and we’ll see what we can do in the warm-up on raceday. I love racing here, not because the track is technical or very demanding, but because of the history of the place. My foot and knee are a bit sore when I’m walking around the paddock, but it’s absolutely no problem when I’m on the bike so I’ll be going all-out for a good result on Saturday. Rico Penzkofer – 31st, 1:44.898 At the beginning of practice, we had a few small problems with the gearbox and electronics, so I wasn’t as happy as I am today. The set-up of the bike is perfect and if the electronics had been better, I’m sure I could’ve taken another second off my lap time. It’s going to be a very hard race, because we we’ll be losing out to the top factory teams in top speed, but I think we’ll do very well in the infield on the brakes. At Daytona, slipstreaming is very important and I hope I can use that to good effect in the race. Brian Parriott – 33rd, 1:44.987 I missed a bit of both opening sessions because of some technical problems, but I’m much happier with how things went today. I’m still learning the bike and we’re improving all the time. There’s definitely more to come, so I’m hopeful that we’ll do a good job on raceday. I prefer the old Daytona layout, but this new design is OK and maybe a bit better for our bikes. We’ll see what happens on raceday. Nate Kern – 37th, 1:45.412 Practice actually went better for me then qualifying, so I’m not as happy as I could be today. We had a bit of a problem and I couldn’t pull sixth gear properly and that made it difficult to get a good top speed or draft well. The bike set-up is very good, so if we can solve the small problem with sixth gear, I’m sure we can go for a good result on raceday. Berti Hauser (BMW Motorrad Motorsport team manager) The earlier part of the week has been quite tough for us, but I am very happy how things finished up. The team have all worked hard and I’m happy that our riders are in the first phase. Achieving that is a psychological boost for the whole team and we can now approach raceday in a good frame of mind. The top speed of the factory bikes here is pretty amazing – they’re going almost as fast as Superbikes – so we know we are going to have to dig deep to get good results. This is the first time that BMW Motorrad Motorsport have entered this famous event and we are so surprised and happy with everybody’s reaction to BMW’s presence here at Daytona. The sympathy for what we are trying to do here is overwhelming. We are here to learn as much as we can and do the very best we can to put on a good show on Saturday.