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Formula Xtreme race. With Formula Xtreme as the premier race this March, he should add to that count, though he wouldn't admit it at first. "I don't think that counts a lot really," he said of his impressive win tally. "I think there's going to be a lot of surprises there. Kurtis [Roberts] goes like a bat out of hell on the 600. He's done it before he can do it again. Jake [Zemke] ... the same. He's extra motivated. I'm sure he'd like to get that win, and so would I. For some reason, I'm suspecting somebody else might show up, a couple of guys. At some places we're faster than them by far, at some places we're not. "It's Daytona. It's 200 miles; it's a long race - 68 laps around there," Duhamel continued. "A lot of stuff can happen. We're probably the favorites going into the thing for sure. I guess that's why we have races to find out what's going to happen." Duhamel said that the FX 600 was nearly sorted out, whereas the Superbike needs more work. The bigger concern for Duhamel is the new layout. During the January tire test, too many riders ran off the track or fell, he felt, and the situation could be worse "The qUicker it's over, the better," Mladin said, "simply because we have a lot of testing to do after Daytona. That's when we go about, myself and my team, go about doing our business. [It] is when we go testing, getting ready for the normal racetracks. We'll see what happens at Daytona. Obviously, we'd love to win it. We'd never give away a win just for any reason. We certainly will be keeping our heads on our shoulders, that's for sure." As confident as Mladin feels, he knows others will be out to test him. First among them is 2003 World Superbike Champion Neil Hodgson, now at Ducati Austin. "He's going to be strong, no doubt about that," Mladin says. And within the Yosh team, Ben Spies will be out to make an impression in his first Daytona Superbike race. "Young Ben, he's going to be hungry for a championship," Mladin said. "I'm always wary of some of the younger guys, because they're fast - there's no doubt about that." "It's going to be really strange," Hodgson said of the race. "I've said this to my family: I'm doing all this training, hours and hours and hours, and I said my first event I've got a IS-Iap sprint. It'll seem really weird, really bizarre." The Ducati 999FOS needs some improvement and, if it's made, Hodgson thinks he'll be in the serum. come Bike Week. "The track, all those corners in the infield, they're all first gear, they're very tight," he said. "A lot of people were running straight. What I'm saying is I don't know. I don't know how they're going to deal with people missing that first righthander and getting back to the track on the other side. Something like that could mess up a race, actually. Even if you get a five-second lead or a 10-second lead, you could lose it in that one section. Because it's first gear and one line, that's all there is to it. Privateers, their bikes are as fast as ours, so you can't outdrag them to the next corner, and it's not very wide. "I anticipate more of a headache than just a pleasure," Duhamel added. "Like here at Laguna Seca, as a racetrack, I can probably predict a lot more how this is going to go." Zemke, who will be making his debut as a factory rider with American Honda, doesn't have a feel for how the race will play out. (Below) Neil Hodgson will be in action in the Superbike race at Daytona. The Brit is hoping to turn around Ducati's miserable luck at the Speedway. "I hope no one can break away, I hope it's a race, because if it's a race, we can win," Hodgson said. The area of focus for the Ducati team is the new Ohlins cartridge front fork, specifically how it'll work in tum one. "It won't make any difference on the banking." Hodgson said. "It'll help on the first corner. I didn't have a nice feeling the way the forks dive at high speed. Now they're a lot smoother, so it should give me a better feeling, because I was s%$# in the first corner. "I'm looking forward to going back to Daytona because it is one of those tracks you need to go back to," Hodgson added. "First time you go there, even though I had a couple of days, it's all a bit too much. I never say it, but I sort of planned I was going to knock a second off and I felt pretty confident, and it just didn't happen, and then I was really angry. Why didn't it happen? The problem with that was that I'd done too many laps. And when you do too many laps, it's like, 'F%$#, I need to go away.''' When he decides to retire, not before 2007, Duhamel will do so as the winningest professional in the history of DIS. His resume includes four Daytona 200s, six Supersport wins, and last year's (Right) Eric Bostrom teams with Hodgson on the Ducati Austin team. CYCLE NEWS • MARCH 2, 2005 29

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