HM Plant Honda's Leon Haslam has taken his debut British Superbike win of 2009 at Knockhill this afternoon and has laid to rest the demons that have been bothering him so far this season.
Or, as he puts it: "“That’s such a relief! It feels like I’ve got a monkey off my back."
Haslam, along with team-mate Cal Crutchlow, didn't finish race one due to an electrical failure and a subsequent collision with Airwaves Ducati's Shane Byrne. However, in the latter stages of race two Haslam was catching leader Byrne and it was only a matter of time before the 24-year-old went past.
In the end he didn't have to as Byrne lobbed it, necessitating a red flag and stopping the race at more than two-thirds distance, meaning it was declared a result.
"This win’s been a long time coming! The team have worked so hard so it’s great to finally give them the reward for it," said Haslam. "Obviously it wasn’t the way I wanted to win it, with Shane Byrne falling off, but I was reeling him in after he’d pulled a bit of a gap through backmarkers so I felt the win was mine. It also made up for the disappointment of the first race. I was slowing down to come into the pits when Shakey caught me and knocked me down at very slow speed. This fires me up for the rest of the season and I’m looking forward to Cadwell Park.”