PODIUM DELIGHT AS HASLAM TAKES FIRST MCE BRITISH SUPERBIKE WIN SINCE 2008

2nd May 2016 – Following on from their one-two in qualifying yesterday, Leon Haslam and James Ellison enjoyed a double podium in the opening MCE British Superbike Championship race today, with Leon taking his first win in the series since 2008 and James finishing third. The second race saw them finish third and fourth. A difficult weekend for Silverstone race winner Peter Hickman saw him finish with a brace of twelfth places.  

Bank Holiday Monday cemented a successful weekend for the JG Speedfit Kawasaki team, as they leave the Cheshire circuit adding pole position, a win and a pair of podium third placed finishes to their 2016 MCE British Championship campaign.  

With Leon securing his second pole position, and James finishing in second, the pair started today’s opening race on the front row whilst Peter started 14th. With the morning’s heavy rain ceasing prior to the start, Haslam slipped back to fifth whilst James leapt off the line and built a healthy lead during the opening laps. As the track began to dry, and the wet tyres lost grip, it became a case of who could manage their tyres best. Moving into the lead during the closing stages, Leon held off a last lap charge from Iddon to claim his first BSB win since 2008, whilst James crossed the line in third. Silverstone race winner Hickman was unable to capitalise on his dry practice pace, taking a twelfth place finish. 

With the heavens opening again shortly before the second outing, the race saw the BSB riders opt for a multitude of different tyre options on the grid. Opting for slick tyres front and rear, Leon and James took it steady on the wet track during the opening laps waiting for the dry line to appear. Working their way back through the pack, the duo traded places for the final rostrum finish, with it eventually going the way of Leon. Struggling during the wet laps, Peter was one of the fastest riders on track during the dry closing stages and crossed the line with another twelfth place finish.  

Over the moon to take his first race victory since returning to the domestic series, Leon Haslam said, “After the difficulties of Silverstone, to walk away this weekend having taken my first British Superbike win since 2008 and another podium is fantastic and I’d have taken it all day long! 

They were two tough races with the changing conditions – race one stayed wetter for longer which helped, whilst the second outing we opted for slicks on the grid. It was definitely the right choice of tyre to be on at the end, but we just ran out of time a little on the grid to get a full dry set up together. Oulton Park is a challenging circuit, but leaving here with the results we had is awesome.”

Pleased to secure his first podium of the year, James Ellison added, “It’s not been an easy day with the weather, but we’ve made a massive step this weekend and to walk away having taken our first podium of the season is really positive. We’ve experienced very different track conditions in pretty much every session, but we were still capable of pushing at the front in all of them so I’m feeling really good on the bike now. 

We’ve got a couple of weeks until Brands, but I’m really looking forward to it – we had a fantastic weekend there last year so fingers crossed we can replicate it this time!”

Disappointed not to be able to replicate his pace from Silverstone in today’s tricky conditions, Peter Hickman added, “I’ll be honest, that was a really disappointing weekend. On Saturday, during the dry practice we were comfortably running top six and I believe we had the pace today to have been challenging for the podium if conditions were better. In the wet today I just couldn’t get the laps together or get going quick enough – but then as the track dried out in that last race I was one of the quickest guys on circuit for the last few laps. 

As we proved last time out, and Leon and James proved today, two twelfth positions is not where the team, the bike or I should be. We’ll be back at Brands though ready to make amends!”  

GBmoto Racing Team Principal Mark Smith-Halvorsen concluded, “It has been another very challenging BSB meeting for everyone involved, mainly due to the constantly changing conditions. We had a lot of wet track time on Sunday, and were able to get a good set up for that, but that all went out the window with today’s drying tracks! The opening outing was fantastic and Leon rode incredibly well to fend off Iddon on the last lap – equally James had a brilliant race and had it stayed wetter then he would certainly have been challenging Leon for the win. The second race saw a gamble for tyres and they both opted for slicks, which saw them pick their way through at the end to claim third and fourth. 

On Peter’s side, he suffered with a loss of some track time after the problems of Saturday which has left him playing a little bit of catch up. We know two twelfth places aren’t where he deserves to be and are very confident we’ll be seeing him back to his best next time out.”