Hill eager to emulate Suzuki WSBK success

Tommy Hill is hoping he will be inspired by Leon Haslam's WSBK success with Suzuki with a similar performance on the British stage at Brands Hatch
Hill eager to emulate Suzuki WSBK success

Tommy Hill is confident he can mirror Suzuki's outstanding start to the World Superbike season by posting similarly impressive results during the MCE British Superbike season opener at Brands Hatch.

Hill returns to the British series in 2010 as part of the Worx Crescent Suzuki team, the Jack Valentine-helmed squad giving the 25-year-old a full-time deal after impressing on a handful of outings last season.

Joining forces with experienced Suzuki racer Yukio Kagayama, Hill has shown strong pace in testing and while he admits the GSX-R1000 can be a bit sensitive with regards to set-up, he is confident he has found the sweet spot now.

"I feel like I am part of the bike and everything is working really well," he told Crash.net. "It is a bike that needs to be right and if it isn't right then it can hold you up, so we still have work to do. However, I have Yukio as a team-mate and he is going back and forth to Japan testing with Yoshimura, so between us we can get the bike dialled in and run up the front."

With Suzuki enjoying an upturn of fortunes on the world stage courtesy of Leon Haslam and Sylvain Guintoli, Hill says the close relationship between the Crescent and Alstare teams' should enable him to be equally as competitive.

"Suzuki are very close with the telemetry, so we can use their information and they can use ours. Hopefully we can have a good start to the season as well."

Looking ahead to the season, Hill has set his sights on being consistent, admitting the rule changes may well see riders backing off in the first-half of the year in order to keep the points ticking over.

"It's about being consistent for the first part of the season and at the end, if I'm in the top six, push for the title. It's a hard one to call because the idea of the championship is to promote close racing, but in the back of the riders' minds you want to be finishing, so should you push that extra bit?"

"We have a saying in Motocross - the bulls*** stops when the gate drops. I think everyone is raring to go this season. Even though the rule changes are in place, I think it will be hard fought right to the end of the season."

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