Knockhill British Superbikes: Leon Haslam: “We’ve struggled to overtake all season”

Leon Haslam has said both he and the team have made some changes for this weekend’s eighth round of the British Superbike Championship to improve his overtaking capabilities.

Haslam has had a tough 2008, especially when it’s come to making passes on riders.

But the 25-year old says the team seems to have found a solution for this weekend and, by setting the fastest time of the day, Haslam has proved the changes are for the better.

After topping FP2 with a 49.004, matching Shane Byrne’s best time exactly in the same session, Haslam told MCN: “I’m really pleased with my consistency.

“I did 38 laps on the same tyre and managed a 49.2.

“Tomorrow we’re aiming to drop into the high 48’s and I don’t see why we can’t – the tyres are working really well both consistently and in terms of distance.

“We’ve made a couple of changes to the chassis setup and sacrificed a little bit of direction change to make us more stable going into the turns.

“I’ve not been able to pass people all year so it’s something we wanted to concentrate on.

“Now we’ve got a lot more feel and can run into corners harder, so hopefully I’ll be passing people well this weekend.”