Iddon’s a Dutch master
® CHRISTIAN IDDON upstaged Shane Byrne and Leon Haslam in free British Superbike practice at Assen yesterday.
The Tyco BMW rider left it late before charging clear of the pack with a lap of the Dutch circuit in 1m 36.752secs.
Championship leader Byrne, riding the Be Wiser Ducati and chasing a record fifth British Superbike title, was second fastest but only by 0.012secs ahead of Haslam.
Byrne, who goes into tomorrow’s penultimate round with a 27-point lead over Haslam, said: “That lead might as well be none as just one technical failure or slip in a race is 25 potential points gone.
‘‘So it’s very important that we keep our heads down and work hard.
Crash
“My aim, as always, is to fight for two wins.
“If we don’t manage to achieve that we need to try to minimise the loss of points to our rivals.’’
Haslam, riding the JG Speedit Kawasaki, is still angered by his costly crash last time out at Donington Park which cost him the lead in the series and leaves him playing catch-up.
He said: “The crash was disappointing.
“It was our first mistake of the year, but annoyingly it came during the Showdown.
“We are down on points compared to before that round but we have closed a bigger gap than that before.
“We’re now a little way behind Shane in terms of the Showdown.
‘‘But I’ve scored more points as a whole over the season so we know that we’ve got the pace to close him down.”