Haslam hits the highs – and lows
LEON HASLAM won the first race and crashed out of the second in the MCE Insurance British Superbikes at Oulton Park yesterday.
Haslam held on to his lead in the chase for the crown after winning race one ahead of fivetimes champion Shane Byrne.
And with Haslam crashing, Byrne was an easy winner of the second race of round three, his first victory of the season.
It followed a disastrous opening two rounds in which he finished ® only one race. JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider Haslam said after his race one win: “The bike was faultless, I had good pace and was confident that I could push on. The race went exactly to plan.”
Haslam was again fast away in the second race before James Ellison on the McAMS Yamaha took over at the front.
But Be Wiser Ducati’s Byrne was piling on the pressure and on the sixth lap he had the lead – and was in no mood to let it slip. Ellison and Haslam were scrapping for second place when it all went wrong for them with six laps to go.
Charging away from Druids at 150mph, Haslam clipped the back of Ellison’s bike and went down heavily, luckily escaping injury.
His bike somersaulted over the barriers and was wrecked while Ellison was lucky to stop with the exhaust hanging off his bike.
Byrne then eased to victory before saying: “I was able to cruise round and bring it home. We’ve had the speed all season but have been very unlucky.
“I hope we have got the bad luck out of the way and now we can get on with winning and get through to the Showdown.”
Byrne’s team-mate Glenn Irwin finished second.
Haslam’s demise allowed his team-mate Luke Mossey, third and fifth yesterday, to close to within three points in the standings, 111 to 108. Byrne climbed to seventh, on 58 points.