Oulton BSB: Haslam ‘surprised’ with strong laps on the SC1 rear tyre

JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam was surprised with how quick he was on the harder SC1 rear Pirelli tyre during the opening MCE British Superbike free practice session at Oulton Park,
and was also pleased with his pace on the softer SC0 rear too, so he is feeling positive after day one.

In FP2 he was narrowly pipped at the top of the timesheets, by title rival, Be Wiser Ducati’s Shane Byrne, who went 0.2 seconds faster than the Derby-based racer.

Haslam has already secured his place in the Showdown, but he still finds the circuit quite challenging. He will be aiming for maximum points over the three races, and felt he could have gone quicker in the second free practice session. But went the wrong way with the settings on his ZX-10R, and ended up being pushed down to P2 on the timing-screens.

“This morning went P1 and on a harder tyre, which was really surprising and this afternoon we were concentrating more on a race run and we put a new tyre in at the end and we didn’t really maximise it and we went the wrong way with the settings,” said Haslam, speaking to Bikesportnews.com at the circuit.

“I didn’t get the perfect lap, for me it was frustrating as I felt we could have gone a lot quicker but at the same time we learnt a lot for race distance and tyres for tomorrow’s race. We have done a similar time on both (hard and soft rear tyres) and it is really looking positive.

“The circuit is quite challenging, a lot of hills and wheeling and different from normal tracks I have been issued to in the past, so it always takes a bit to get your head around things but once you know where and how it is about getting into that rhythm.”