British Superbikes: Hawk Kawasaki plan James Haydon ride

Hawk Kawasaki are making plans to runJames Haydon on their superbike for the Cadwell British Superbike round.

Alex Camier has been drafted into the team to replace Peter Hickman for this weekend’s Croft round but team boss Stuart Hicken says he wants to field James Haydon once the established superbike star has had more time on the team’s ZX-10.

Stuart Hicken said: “I believe our bikes have the potential to finish top three in BSB every week with the right jockey on board and have to have someone on the bike who can perform.

“I have to say that I was very impressed by James when he tested out bike at Mallory last week. He hadn’t been on a bike in four months but was on the pace straight away.”

James Haydon raced a Virgin Yamaha in the early part of the year but split with the team after struggling to find any level of confidence with the Pirelli tyres.

But Stuart Hicken reckons he showed no signs of lacking confidence on the Dunlop-shod Kawasaki.

“He jumped on Peter’s bike (Hickman’s bike has Bitubo suspension compared to Scott Smart’s which has Ohlins) and apart from some extra oil in the forks to stop it bottoming at the Hairpin and a click of compression, he rode it as it came and was impressively quick.

“I think he liked the combination of the tyres and out traction control system and his fast times came at the end of each session. His riding didn’t show any lack of confidence from what I could see.

“But I don’t think the 60 laps he did is enough testing. We’ll get him out again for a full day of testing before Cadwell.”