BSB: Haslam: 'It's better than I expected'

Leon Haslam says he’s higher up than he expected as he makes his return to the MCE British Superbike Championship at Snetterton this weekend.

Haslam missed the last round at Knockhill after a heavy crash in free practice saw him sustain two cracked vertebrae and concussion. Having been passed fit by BSB medics this morning, the JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider returned to action today, just two weeks after the crash, and says while he’s stiff it’s not holding him back.

Haslam was eighth quickest on the opening day of action at Snetterton as the team experienced a number of issues, including an electronic glitch that saw his ZX-10RR accelerating without any touch of the throttle as they wheeled it out into pit-lane.

An ECU change saw that issue resolved, but Haslam continued to complain the machine didn’t feel right and the team later found they had the wrong link in the machine.  

“I’m riding stiff as, especially on left handers,” Haslam told MCN. “At the end of the day I’ve done 24 laps, so we’ve got through today.

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“We had some issues this afternoon. We missed the first 20 minutes as an electrical issue meant the engine was accelerating by itself before we even left pit-lane. Once we got that fixed, we found quite a big issue.

“We’ve been running the wrong link, it’s just one of those things… it’s been a while since I’ve ridden and I’ve written a few bikes off and they’ve had to re-build! I’ve been complaining since I got on it that it didn’t feel right, but because I was injured I didn’t know if it was me. The boys have now found it, so I’m quite happy with our time because the bike was basically not how it should have been, so when we put it back how it should be we should make another step.

“It’s race day that counts. We know we have to work a lot on the hard tyre as we can’t run the soft whereas the others can. I’m not worried yet, we’re not that close but I’m closer than I expected.” 

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