Leon Haslam was so close to winning his maiden MCE British Superbike title and it all went down to the final race at Brands Hatch. But while the JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider was fighting for the series victory he suffered a huge 172 mph crash at Hawthorn Bend.
A report from the medical centre stated that Haslam has broken his left ankle, right wrist and right thumb. He has been booked into hospital for an operation in the morning.
Going into the final event at the Kent circuit Haslam was leading the title chase, but was blighted by a clutch issue in race two and a front brake problem in the last race.
His team are now fully investigating what went wrong with the ZX-10RR but team manager, Jack Valentine told bikesportnews.com that there was ‘definitely an issue with the front end’. Now Haslam will be on the road to full fitness after finishing third in the overall standings, and his team’s plan is to come back stronger to challenge for the 2018 BSB title.
“He has got a fractured wrist and broken ankle and that is the report from the medical centre. He is already going to have an operation for the morning that has already been booked in for him so we will get him up back his neck of the woods tonight and then back to rehab and then fit for pre-season,” said Valentine.
“It seems to be a front brake issue and it needs looking at in a lot more detail and there is definitely an issue from the front end. The bike itself was handling perfect and he said the bike was the best it’s been all weekend, and felt strong and really comfortable until that happened. We have both riders signed for next year and we will be pushing for it next year, we have got winter testing planned already.”
After the race Haslam added: “I had no front brake so had to jump off and not the place to do it. Absolutely gutted we didn’t get it done this weekend and fair play to Shakey and he pushed me all the way and we will be back next year to make amends.”
