Leon Haslam had a weekend that he will remember for a very long time after winning all three races at Oulton Park.
Claiming his first-ever triple win, Haslam moved to the top of the standings as the MCE British Superbike Championship heads into the Showdown.
Haslam won the first race of the weekend ahead of his two teammates, James Ellison and Peter Hickman, as the JG Speedfit Kawasaki team became the first team in history to lockout the podium.
Starting from pole in the second of the weekend’s races, Haslam leapt into the lead but just as in race one, Ellison took over running at the front as the ‘Pocket Rocket’ slipped back to third.
Using the harder of the tyre compounds, it was a waiting game for the race one winner as he first picked off Dan Linfoot to move up into second on lap 10, before taking his team mate three laps later.
Running each other close, Haslam secured his second win of the weekend just 0.4s ahead of Ellison, whose second place was enough to secure him in the all-important top six.
In the final race of the weekend, Haslam was involved in battles with Ellison and Jason O’Halloran for the lead. Both riders were forced to retire with mechanical issues – paving the way for the new championship leader to complete a hat-trick of race wins.
A delighted Haslam said: “It’s been a dream weekend! To have a front row start in all three races was brilliant, and then adding the fastest lap in the first race and then claiming my first ever triple victory is incredible. I want to say a huge thanks to the team for giving us a bike we can fight for the Championship on, they’ve worked non-stop to solve the problems we were experiencing and to make history yesterday with a podium lockout is mega.
“I’m so excited for the Showdown now, we’re leading the standings again and Donington is one of my favourite tracks so I’m so glad we don’t have to wait long to get going again!”
As we enter the Showdown stage of the season Haslam sits top of the championship with 546 points – three ahead of main title rival Shane Byrne.
