Leon Haslam focussed on making progress

Over the past three days one of the most intense people in the Cartagena BSB test garages has been Leon Haslam.

Returning to the domestic series from WSB after a seven year absence, the 32 year old is working flat out on the set up of his JG Speedfit Kawasaki ZX10R in Spain.

“Yeah, we have a pretty intense test programme to be honest with you.” he agreed in a break between racing and studying the data from each session. “This track is quite unique and seems to be real slippery so we have a lot of adjustments to make to the chassis and suspension.”

Although Haslam has raced a huge variety of machinery in his long career he has never ridden a Kawasaki before. “This is the third test on the bike.” he explained. “This is my first test that I’ve been on with the full 2016 fly by wire which takes some setting up. We have to be quite precise because we don’t have time to try things back to back.”

With teammates James Ellison and Peter Hickman in the same garage, space is at a premium but Haslam is working closely with his team and his Dad, Ron, who brings back feedback from the various points around the circuit where watches his son.

“We are still making big changes rather than fine tuning at the minute.” the 16 times BSB race winner explained. “We are running nearly the full race spec that we will have at Silverstone so its nice to get through all the components. Every day we are getting faster and I feel quite confident in my lap time, doing pretty consistent high 1.33s now.”