Ten with...Ron Haslam....................
We catch up with former World champ and racing veteran Rocket Ron, to get his take on the world, racing and still being rapid at 61…
I haven’t had a bad career…
I managed three World Championships, four British Championships and some solid road racing wins including a record six at Macau thrown in for good measure! I feel like I’ve been lucky enough to ride a massive variety of bikes, big and small... and I’m even luckier that I’m still able to do it.
I never thought I’d end up becoming a teacher!
When we came back to England for a bit I really wanted to get a race school going, and both Honda and Donington at the time were well up for it. I thought that I would just come along and ride some bikes, but we ended up running it and that was 21 years ago with 17 bikes. Now we have over a hundred Hondas and are going stronger than ever!
I know it’s taboo, but his year’s Fireblade is misunderstood…
And I’m not just saying that! It took me a shed load of test days and two top dogs from Japan coming over to the school with data for me to get the thing to work, but we got there. The secret is that Honda have built a bulletproof road bike you can take on track, rather than the normal procedure of building a race bike you can take on the road. Take the Torque Control for example – It doesn’t work like traction control and will only save you once before it resets, making it perfect for the road and absolutely faultless. On the track, you’re better having everything off!
As far as racing goes, it’s better than ever… if not more political.
And we all still love to watch it. Whether it’s following our instructors in club racing or watching Marquez and Rossi in MotoGP I still love it as much as I did 40 years ago, but things are so political. Look at Sam (Lowes) in MotoGP as an example, he’s a great friend of us and he’s had a real hard time this year – it’s just so cut-throat even though his times are pretty good. Back in my day you could turn up and have a go at GPs if you had a bike, whereas nowadays if you aren’t bringing in sponsorship it’s nigh on impossible!
Leon’s still got at least five years left in him, but made the right move staying in BSB…
Even though he had a great wildcard at Donington World Superbike this year (with a podium), it made his mind up about not going back full time. Unless you’re on a green or red factory bike you simply don’t have the package to win, and although the Yamaha is getting closer, chances are it’s still going to be a few seasons. In BSB, the rules mean it’s anyone’s game, and Leon would rather be at the front here than finishing fifth every weekend in World Superbikes! Although, if the right deal came about he’d be there tomorrow…
Even with all this, I still miss racing myself sometimes!
Which even led to me entering a team in a Thundersport CB500 endurance race this year. I was in a team with two other guys and we each did an hour! Although it’s not quite as impressive as what Leon did at Suzuka, I had that buzz back and we even managed to win it. It does work both ways though, as at the beginning of the year I broke four ribs, my collarbone and punctured a lung messing around on pitbikes. You’re only young once, eh!