Deal delights Hodgson

Britain's main hope of winning the world superbike championship believes everything is now in place to give him a realistic chance of securing the title after his team signed a three-year sponsorship deal.

Neil Hodgson will lead the GSE Ducati team this season aiming to improve on his fifth-placed finish in the series last year. That debut season for the GSE team was conducted without a main sponsor, but now the team has agreed a deal with HM Plant, believed to be worth £1m per year for the next three seasons.

Hodgson and his team-mate, James Toseland, have already benefited from receiving the factory Ducati machines on which the Australian Troy Bayliss raced to last year's world championship.

Hodgson said: "There is absolutely nothing more we could want for the forthcoming season, especially as we have a year's experience of all the tracks as a team. Everything's in place for us now."