BSB: Haslam: 'In my head I can still win'

Leon Haslam has said he hasn’t ruled out winning tomorrow’s opening Bennetts British Superbike race at Oulton Park despite the fact he’ll start dead last on the grid.

Things went drastically wrong for Haslam in qualifying today as his Kawasaki ZX-10RR dropped a cylinder before he could even post a lap time in the opening qualifying session leaving him 24^th and last on the grid for tomorrow’s opening race.

While he knows he can improve the grid position for race two, the series leader hasn’t ruled out a strong result in the opening race – hoping to emulate Neil Hodgson’s epic last to first run at the Cheshire circuit back in 2000.

“It’s not the best of timing, but it could have been worse – that could have been tomorrow in the races,” Haslam told MCN. “Fingers crossed we can still do the job, it’s definitely going to be a bit more tough and we need to see what the weather is going to do.

“I need to finish both races, that’s the aim and the good thing is we can get a better grid position for race two with a fast lap time in race one.

“In my head I can still win, but it’s not about that. It’s about not getting in too much trouble and keeping it upright. That’s a bit easier when you start from the first few rows, but starting 24^th I might have to take a few more risks to see where we need to be!”