Leon Haslam feels “pace is there” after being pulled into Bradley Ray BSB battle at Oulton Park

Leon Haslam had earned a front row start and found himself able to leap into an early lead in the opening Oulton Park BSB race, but corner entry issues saw him pulled back into a race long battle with Bradley Ray.

The Moto Rapido rider was quick out of the blocks, and a immediate frontrunner, moving into the lead as he took over from Bradley Ray to be in front when Kyle Ryde staged his rapid comeback, for which The Ducati rider had no answer.

“Obviously when Kyle came past - he was setting a lot better pace. I actually feel quite comfortable to go with that pace, but any time he made a little bit of a gap on me I pushed, obviously a little bit too hard. Made too many mistakes. And we were struggling with one thing in particular and it just kept catching me out, and I had enough warning to back it down and slow the pace off a bit.

Then it put me back in the battle with Brad and, you know, my objective was just to bring it home in second, which we managed to do”.

With both not having perfect rides, the pace of Haslam and Ray ended up being evenly matched, leading to a race long battle between the duo for second, something Haslam explained to British Superbikes in the press conference after the opening race.

“Yeah, definitely the same as Brad. Got a little bit of work to do to try and go with Kyle. The pace is there , but we need a little bit more consistency and a little bit more margin.

On being asked where he was having the biggest issue, the 2018 BSB champion highlighted corner entry as his main focus to work on ahead of the Bank Holiday Monday action:

“Just corner entry, just pushing me on a little bit. I was really struggling to stop in the last third and it’s something we’ve been struggling with all weekend.

When I get it in, the lap times fast, but it’s getting it in is a bit of a 50/50 at the minute. So I have to really slow it off to make sure I’m getting in and in race situations it’s a little bit hard."

Haslam will be hoping to make those alterations and add to his Oulton Park record, where he picked up a race win on the first visit to the Cheshire track last May.