WSB: Haslam: 'I've just got to pin it!'

Leon Haslam might have impressed on the opening day of action at the Donington Park round of the 2017 Superbike World Championship, but the BSB regular says he’s still a lot to learn as he focuses on adapting back to a WSB-spec machine.

The BSB series leader, who is wildcarding at the UK round of WorldSBK with Puccetti Kawasaki, says he’s still riding the machine like a BSB-spec bike, which doesn’t have electronic rider aids such as traction control.

He’s particularly losing time in the final sector of the Donington Park circuit, where he fully admits the problem is himself as he learns to trust the electronics after riding without them for a while.  

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“We had two one hour sessions to find out how to ride the bike and set the chassis up and everything else,” Haslam said. “We’ve been making quite a lot of changes and made a really good step with the chassis towards the end of that session. We went 0.5 quicker than I’ve been all day on a 13-lap old tyre. To go P3 on a used tyre is a massive step for us. I’ve still got to improve in the last sector but that’s 100% me, I’ve got to trust the electronics and twist my hand! I’m still riding a bit too much like I do in BSB and that interferes with the electronics, so in short, I’ve just got to pin it!”

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