Bank Holiday Monday proved to be a fantastic day for the JG Speedfit Kawasaki team as Leon Haslam made his return to the top step of the podium.
Haslam secured the ‘King of the Mountain’ title following an epic day of racing in Lincolnshire – in front of the biggest crowd of the season.
The day started with Haslam on pole as race one got underway. The ‘Pocket Rocket’ led for the opening four laps but an error on that lap dropped him down to third.
Setting a string of blisteringly quick lap times, including breaking his own lap record which has stood since 2007, he was soon able to pull back the 1.3s gap to the front and reclaim the lead on lap nine.
With Championship rival Shane Byrne running second, the pair came down to a last lap battle. Struggling to match Byrne’s rear grip however, led to the Kawasaki rider having to settle for second.
Race two saw Haslam again start from pole, launching off the line to run second before a first corner incident saw the pace car deployed.
With the race getting underway a few laps later, he wasted no time in moving to the front where he was able to control proceedings, taking his fourth win of the season by 2.1s.
A delighted Haslam said: “It’s been a fantastic weekend. We knew the bike had the pace all weekend and I’ll be honest, I was so frustrated after race one as I felt we had the pace to win but that mistake cost us a bit. In the second race I tried to manage my tyres the best I could and it worked out perfectly!
“It’s been a hard few rounds for us, but we’ve made some massive improvements so full credit to the team who have been working non-stop to get us back to the front. It’s great to get our Showdown position confirmed as well, and we can now head to Oulton Park and focus solely on getting some more podium credits ahead of the final three rounds.”
Round nine of the 2016 championship takes place at Oulton Park, with the opening practice sessions getting underway on Friday, September 9.
