BSB: Haslam: 'It's not about one lap pace'

Leon Haslam was upbeat despite finishing the opening day at Thruxton seventh on the timesheets as he looks to set his JG Speedfit Kawasaki up for what he calls his ‘bogey track’.

The super-fast Hampshire circuit was Haslam’s worst circuit last year so the 2016 series runner-up has been working relentlessly with his team to improve the area where he feels he was missing out last year.

Working solely on the harder SC1 rear tyre, which would explain why he was slightly off the pace on the opening day, Haslam says they’re trying to ensure they’ve got pace throughout the race instead of just at the beginning.

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“We’re getting there,” he told MCN. “I stayed on the hard tyre all session this morning and the last few laps were quicker than I was lapping in the race last year. We made some changes this afternoon and some were positive and some weren’t so positive, so we need to regroup and put together a better package for tomorrow.

“We’ve pretty much spent both sessions on the hard tyre so we need to pay as little attention to the lap time as possible as we’re focusing on the race. The Ducati can run the zero but we’ll have to be fast on the last five laps and for that we’ll have to be on the hard.

“A lot of people throw a lap in with a new tyre here. Shakey did a 1’13 before the race here last year but didn’t even do a 1’14 in the race. That shows what you’ve got to do in the race here. We’ll always struggle for one lap but we’re not doing too bad on distance.” 

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