Haslam comes of age in WSBK

Date published : 03 Mar 2010 - 15:19:45

Leon Haslam has been a force in the Superbike Championship for some time, but at Phillip Island the Suzuki Alstare rider make a career breakthrough by taking his first win at this level of racing. Having been fast in testing over the winter months, Haslam has actually taken his debut win at the very first attempt as an official rider in an official team, have raced as a wildcard and privateer rider in the past. He followed up his win with a second place in Australia, only 0.307 seconds from his second win of the day. Having started 62 races in this class, including those at Phillip Island last weekend, Haslam is actually something of a veteran at 26 years-old, simply because he started racing scooters at 14 years of age, winning the national championship in the UK in his first year. He went on to race everything from CB500 Honda twins to full MotoGP machinery in a wide-ranging career for such a young rider. After moving back to BSBS racing full time in 2005 Leon enjoyed 16 wins in that class, and was second in the BSB championship in 2006 and 2008 - and never outside the top four in any year since 2005. In 2009 Haslam was the top Honda in the WSBK series for a major part of the season, and was a top six finisher, in front of many official machines in the final rankings. Leon's entire racing career has been run under the watchful eye of his father Ron, a successful rider in his own right in a large number of bike racing disciplines over the years. Haslam - Leon that is - now has eight WSBK podium finishes, and has taken them on Ducati, Honda and now Suzuki machinery. His first was in Germany in 2004, his most recent as second place last Sunday. Given his form in 2010 already, we may not have to wait for too long before he adds to his already impressive haul of statistics.