BSB: Haslam back on track with Cadwell test

Less than 48 hours after riding a gruelling five hours on his way to second place in the Suzuka Eight Hour, Leon Haslam was back in the UK at Cadwell Park to test for his JG Speedfit Kawasaki MCE British Superbike team.

Having arrived at the circuit at 1am after his flight back from Japan, Haslam was out on track from 9am as he looked to make up for time lost due to technical issues at two previous test sessions.

After dominating the start of the year with Haslam and Luke Mossey, the JG Speedfit Kawasaki team have been somewhat off the boil in the mid-part of the 2017 season but after a strong day on track at the Lincolnshire circuit the 2016 series runner-up is confident they’ve found a direction to go in.

“We really needed a test, hence why I’ve come straight from Suzuka to Cadwell Park,” Haslam told MCN. “The day got cut short with rain but we got quite a bit done, certainly more than the 18 laps we had last time we tested here!

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“We’re doing what we need to do, so hopefully it’ll set us up in a better direction for when we’re here in a few weeks’ time. We’ve experimented a lot with the chassis and balance of the bike, things we haven’t really had chance to try this year as it takes time and you don’t get that sort of time in practice.

“We’ve tried quite a bit and were still able to lap in the 1’26s so I’m happy with what we’ve achieved.”

Thruxton was one of Haslam’s worst rounds in 2016 as the Kawasaki struggled to conserve the softer option rear tyre on the fast, abrasive course, but he’s confident of returning to the front soon.

“I led both races at Thruxton last year but tyre life was the killer of the result so that’s one big area we need to look at as it’s not just about speed it’s about managing tyre life over race distance. We’ve made a step forward, but we’ve got to bring that package together now which was what we lacked at Brands. When we do that we can challenge for the win again, maybe not at Thruxton because of the characteristics of the track but hopefully we can be in with a shout.” 

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