‘I’ll ride anything, anywhere’ - Haslam

Leon Haslam has had a busy and challenging season as he combines Bennetts British Superbikes alongside a raft of other Kawasaki duties.

Alongside his Eight-Hours endurance call-up, wildcards in WorldSBK and a fleeting appearance in IDM, the 2018 BSB Champion has not had an easy return to the national series with the Lee Hardy-run VisionTrack Kawasaki squad. Currently sitting 12th in the standings, Haslam has one podium to his name alongside three fifth place finishes as his best results to date. Silverstone’s opening round amassed just four points from three races but with improvements shown in round five, the Derby rider feels things are finally slotting into place.

“My predictions came true really,” Haslam told bilkesportnews.com while reflecting on the start of his 2022 campaign. “The podium at Oulton Park wasn’t a realistic podium, that was just me scratching around a track that the Kawasaki works well at. It wasn’t that realistic. “We had all the issues that I said we were gonna have, with getting the engine rideable. We’ve had some unforeseen issues that we’ve struggled with - just kind of components not working as they should which obviously is unforeseen - which kind of led to a little bit of inconsistency. And, unlike me, I’ve had some very big crashes, which, you know, in ’18, I didn’t have one DNF and we’ve already had four this year, two mechanicals and two of my own. “So, as a cluster of the first four rounds, I would say, it was exactly where it was, and it was harder than expected. But since Knockhill to Brands, we managed to get a two-hour test and we managed to do some of the mapping and fuelling that I wanted to do, and we rectified all the components that wasn’t working as they should. So, rocking up