JG Speedfit Kawasaki's Leon Haslam made it onto the top step of the MCE British Superbike podium not once, but twice during the double header at Donington Park.
2006 was the last time the rider won a race at his local track, and today he gained maximum points at the Leicestershire circuit, after out-pacing Josh Brookes in race-two and holding off the charges of Luke Mossey in the first race. Even though the end result was the same for Haslam, his tyre choices in-between races were not.
In the opening race Haslam opted for the SC1 soft front and SC1 hard rear Pirelli, but in race two he went for the harder front and rear compounds. The biggest battle for him during last year was conserving tyre life on the zero, but he spent a successful winter test trying to adapt the ZX-10R to work on the harder front - and it certainly benefitted today.
"We had all last year trying to make the zero (tyre) do 20 laps, and it was very temperature dependant or trying to be fast on a tyre that has not got as much grip, that lasted a bit longer," said Haslam at the track.
"That was our battle last year and we worked all winter trying to improve tyre life so that we could use the softer option. I was a little bit unsure as the track temperature got up to 33 degrees which is SC0 territory. But we had done all the work on the one on the weekend, again it was too much of a risk to go with zero and for it not to last the race.
"I felt confident I could do the lap times, and then made a big mistake and Josh put quite a big gap on me and I had to push a bit harder than I wanted too. I had to do two or three 29'0 after half race distance.
"I am happy I did that on the hard tyre, but luckily Josh's tyre started to drop and I managed to make it count. Last year was a bit of a learning curve for me but we can now go to each round and know what to expect."
Haslam now leads the championship from his team-mate, Luke Mossey but today his 2016 title rival, Be Wiser Ducati's Shane Byrne was missing from both races. The reigning champ has concussion and was ruled out of the event today after a big warm-up crash.
Speaking after race one Haslam said: "This is my third ever win at the track and I won back in 2006 was the last time I won here. to win at my home round at Donington and to get a 1-2 for the team, and it couldn't have gone any better and thanks to all the boys for the effort.
"I knew Ellison went for the soft tyre so it was only a matter of time before his tyre dropped off. I didn't want to push too hard and burn my tyre up trying to go with a soft tyre pace so I kept a good rhythm and same lap times and we set another 29 on lap 18 and that is where we were looking at and we knew that was the pace that would go on and win and we made some big steps over the winter."
