JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam spent some of the official MCE British Superbike test at Oulton Park getting himself accustomed to the Cheshire circuit, after an eight-year hiatus from the track.
The Derby-based rider has been on the World Superbike stage for a number of years and even though he has some good memories of the Oulton circuit it still took him time to get used to being out on it once again.
But Haslam left his best session until last and on his penultimate lap set the fastest time of a 1’35.025, and was only six tenths off the lap record set last year by reigning BSB champion, Josh Brookes. So it is fair to say that the Smalley native certainty remembered how to ride the track by the end of the one-day test.
“It was just getting used to the circuit for me and it has been eight years and it is quite a unique way that we have to set the bike up, not only for me but the bike itself. It is a new bike with a different suspension, and the first two sessions I was just concentrating on that and it felt pretty good,” said Haslam, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the track.
“It was really difficult today with traffic and that was the biggest hurdle we were coming across. I felt we could have been a lot quicker if I got some clearer laps early on, but at the same time to end up quickest I am pretty happy. In general it has been a good day we have got through a lot of stuff and it is going to put us in good stead for the race weekend.”
Haslam spent the bulk of the sessions testing out the chassis, but even though he was the quickest rider this afternoon he is still adamant that there are still areas that need to be fine-tuned on the ZX-10R.
Haslam added: “We have been testing the chassis mainly, you get a lot of wheelie here with all the rises and crests and you have to keep that front wheel on the floor to go forward. We have not done too much with the engine breaking here as it has been working quite stable. There are still areas that we know we can improve in.
“I have good memories of Oulton, but it is a bit of a culture shock coming back and to just get down the straight is hard work with the rises and the wheelies. It takes a little bit of time to get your head around it, but good memories all the same.”