Hodgson joins Ducati

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Hodgson was left out of work when Ducati pulled out of racing in America at the end of last season and has seen his attempts to land a race seat for this season fail to come off.

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Need for speed: Former World Superbike champion Neil Hodgson is joining Ducati

But Hodgson is to act as official test rider for the Italian manufacturer in a bid to land a ride for the 2008 season.

The 2003 world champion has replaced the injured Japanese rider Shinichi Ito as tester and told MCN: "I'm well chuffed for a couple of reasons.

"Number one is that I want to ride a bike as soon as I can and number two is, no matter how much training you do, there is no substitute for doing laps, which I'll be doing lots of in testing.

"It's a great opportunity to get dialled in and if the need arises to substitute for somebody, I'll be ready."

Hodgson, who rode in GPs from 1994-1995 and in 2004, saw his chances of racing this season finally end when Carl Fogarty's World Superbike team did not enter this year's championship when the funding to run year-old Ducatis could not be found.