Haslam content with double podium damage limitation

Following his back of the grid start for the Oulton Park opener, Leon Haslam says he leaves the opening Showdown round ‘really happy’ with a double podium to produce damage limitation to his Bennetts British Superbike championship lead.

The JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider suffered a nightmare in qualifying when a broken cylinder in his engine ended it before setting a lap time in Q1 meaning a back of the grid start for race one.

Haslam content with double podium damage limitation

Following his back of the grid start for the Oulton Park opener, Leon Haslam says he leaves the opening Showdown round ‘really happy’ with a double podium to produce damage limitation to his Bennetts British Superbike championship lead.

The JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider suffered a nightmare in qualifying when a broken cylinder in his engine ended it before setting a lap time in Q1 meaning a back of the grid start for race one.

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In the wet and slippery conditions in the opening race, Haslam bolted from the back to reach third place before following it up with second place in the dry race two behind double winner Jake Dixon, with his main BSB title rival trimming his lead from 45 points down to 31 points.

Considering his nightmare in qualifying, Haslam was thrilled with his recovery but felt he left it too late to catch Dixon in race two to pull off an unexpected victory.

“I just took too long to get into second place and Jake got such a strong pace from the get go and at one point he had six seconds on me and got it down to under two,” Haslam said. “The closer I got, the harder I was trying, the more mistakes I was making.

“So I ran out of laps but fair play to Jake he has the double win but I am really happy.

“Coming from the back row of the grid to third and second place, feeling really good with the rhythm of the bike, and the tyres felt strong too.”

Despite losing his winning run, having come into Oulton Park off the back of five consecutive victories, Haslam did maintain his rostrum record which stretches back to Thruxton’s race two.

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