Haslam battles tyre issues for second place fightback

Leon Haslam says he fought through tyre problems in the cold conditions at Donington Park to take a much-needed podium in race two of the 2018 Bennetts British Superbike championship opener.

The JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider endured a rear tyre issue during the latter stages of the opening race of the 2018 BSB season which dropped him down to ninth place.

After making adjustments ahead of the second race, which ran on a drying track after heavy rain triggered a schedule switch, but Haslam said the tyre problem returned which restrained his charge up the order to second place behind dominant double winner Bradley Ray for Buildbase Suzuki.

Haslam paid credit to the maiden BSB double race winner and took comfort from his second place to score some vital early points ahead of his title tilt.

“We had a major issue in race one as I was over a second-and-a-half slower than what we did with the same bike and tyres so we weren’t quite sure with what caused that but we’ve put it down to conditions and tyres,” Haslam said.

“I had the same problems in that race which made it a little bit of hard work with a thin dry line. I tried to catch Brad up but his pace was really solid so fair play to him he was looking really good.

“It has been one of those weekends where conditions have been tricky and I didn’t want to throw anything away in the first round. I gave it all I had in the second race and I am happy with the second place.”

Haslam sits fourth in the BSB riders’ championship after the opening round with Ray leading from Shane Byrne and Dan Linfoot.