Leon Haslam is ready for the fight as the Bennetts British Superbike Championship returns to Knockhill this weekend, at a circuit that has a mixture of memories for the 2018 champion.
The ROKiT BMW Motorrad rider claimed his first win at the Scottish circuit and as he bids to build on his strong start to the season with his new team, Haslam is hungry to be back in the fight this weekend.
The ‘Pocket Rocket’ has already celebrated podium success this season, but has yet to clinch a first race win for the team. A determined Haslam though is ready to scrap it out in Scotland, despite a tough recent test at the circuit after he sustained a shoulder injury. He remains confident ahead of this weekend’s races following recent weeks of rehabilitation following the crash.
Haslam said: “Knockhill for me has always been a bit of a mixture really, I got my first win there back in ‘98 on a 125 and had a lot of success there on the Kawasaki. But then I also broke my neck in a crash there in 2017, which was a big one and last year I got clipped at the hairpin and had to have all my neck stitched up so a bit of misfortune too! But I do love the battle around Knockhill.
“BMW have not had the best of results there over the last few years, and for me the test didn’t really go to plan. We only got 30 laps before I dislocated my shoulder so it’s been a few tough weeks on a bit of a rehab, but we did get to test a few things over those 30 laps.
“This year it has been so far, so good, we have been battling for podiums every weekend so hopefully fingers crossed we can hit the ground running. It’s a real tight and aggressive circuit, we need to improve the bike on the braking stability, but the rest of it has been going really well so fingers crossed and we are looking forward to another three races.”