HASLAM WILL RACE AT DONINGTON WSB
British Superbike star Leon Haslam will make a wildcard appearance in the UK round of the World Superbike Championship at Donington Park on May 26-28, riding for the Puccetti Kawasaki team. After testing the team’s machine at Portimao in January, Haslam will make his return to the world series alongside the team’s regular rider Randy Krummenacher. Before heading back to BSB in 2016, Haslam was a regular WSB frontrunner and showed he still has what it takes to fight at the sharp end when he raced in the final round of the 2017 season in Qatar and took an impressive fifth place for the Pedercini Kawasaki team. Haslam said: “WSB wildcards were always part of the plan for 2017 and what better place to start than my home round? It’s a circuit I know well and the Kawasaki is strong there, Tom (Sykes) has won the last eight races! “I tested the bike earlier this year and with the exception of the electronics, it seems pretty close to the factory bikes. We showed what we could do with the Pedercini bike in Qatar with fifth and in theory this bike should be closer to the factory bikes than that was.” With team boss Andrew Pitt knowing Haslam well, it might not be the only time he rides their ZX-10R this season. Haslam added: “If there’s an opportunity to do more, I’ll be more than happy. It’s good to show that the top level in BSB can still compete in WSB and who knows what it means for the future.”