JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam had his first taste of being out all day on the ZX-10R in wet conditions, and even though he spent some time trying to get heat in the tyres in the MCE British Superbike qualifying sessions, he was able to get comfortable enough on his machine to go P1 this afternoon at Oulton Park.
Haslam experienced the Cheshire track for the first time in eight years at the official test last week, and being without traction control and in wet, slippery conditions did not appear to affect the former World Superbike star.
He is adamant that he made some mistakes and he made a small change to his bike, which he was not sure if it paid off or not, but all that doesn’t matter as he will start from pole for the second time this season, for race-one tomorrow after setting a 1’43.663.
“Even on a used or new tyre it took a lot of laps to get the heat in the tyre. To get the feeling you finish the session quite confident knowing where the spins are going to come and then literally reset to go back out in the next session and literally can not touch the throttle,” said Haslam at the track.
“We made a small change as well and I was not sure if I went the right or wrong way and as it [Q3] was only eight minutes long it was like we will just say out there and make the most of it and the last lap we managed to do it but without a lot of spins.
“I didn’t even know where we finished when I came round as I had P4 on my board as I crossed the chequered flag. Big thanks to the team that is our full first day with the bike in the rain and me at this track with no traction control, and it has been a good day.”
