BSB: Haslam: 'Ducati have less of an advantage this year'

Leon Haslam has said he’s feeling confident ahead of this year’s MCE British Superbike title fight as he feels Shane Byrne and Be Wiser Ducati don’t have as much of an advantage as they did at this point last year.

The title was close-fought between Byrne and Haslam last year but Haslam’s hoping to be even closer this time around, especially into the final round at Brands Hatch where the Ducati star ultimately beat him 12 months ago.

However, Haslam heads into the Showdown after a nightmare weekend at Silverstone saw him crash out twice and fail to start the final race with a technical problem.

He also took a bang to his arm in the second crash, but insists he’ll be OK this weekend.

“Silverstone was a disaster,” Haslam told MCN. “My arm took quite a knock in the second crash but when the swelling goes down it should be ok. Points-wise it could have been worse; we wanted to get as many podium credits as possible and ultimately we only lost one point to Shakey. We can roll into Oulton now and press the reset button and start again.

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“The JG Speedfit Kawasaki is obviously capable. The injury [broken vertebra sustained at Knockhill] set us back a bit earlier this year, we’ve had some DNFs that haven’t been my fault and others that have but fortunately it’s not just been me. Shane has also missed rounds and had crashes. Everyone has had their fair share of non-scores.

“We’ve got a good understanding of the bike, we’re improving the team all the time. It’s been difficult but at the same time I feel we’re in a strong place. I don’t quite feel the Ducati has the advantage it had last year. There are other bikes in the mix now, but we’ll see what happens over the next few rounds.” 

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