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Stiggy Racing Honda>> Haslam Fights to Seventh in Difficult Brno weekend

July 29 2009

 
Stiggy Racing Honda's Leon Haslam salvaged the difficult Brno weekend by taking an impressive 7th place in race one of the World Superbike Championship at Brno today.

In spite of a two-day test three at the Czech circuit three weeks ago the team struggled to get to terms with the track since the start of the weekend. Haslam had to start the two superbike race from a low 17th place on the grid, but progressed through the field at a constant pace to finish the first superbike race in seventh place.

Chatter issues in the second 20-lap race halted Haslam's attempts to set up the connection with the fast group in front of him, and the Englishman had to hold his own mid-pack and settle for 12th place in a race where the average pace was very high.

The squad suffered another blow in the face when American John Hopkins found luck no where near his side at Brno this weekend as he crashed out on the 11th-lap of the first Superbike race and had to prematurely end the second one due to an engine failure.

Leon Haslam, Race 1 - 7th, race 2 - 12th:
“I am pretty disappointed with the whole weekend. We found an average set-up for race one and I was happy to be able to coming through in seventh place. We made a few changes for the second race, but I had a lot more chatter, from lap one in the second race. I was doing lap times half a second off what I did in warm-up. The group in front was not that far away but I couldn’t go any faster than I did.”

John Hopkins, Race 1 - DNF, race 2 - DNF:
“I made the decision to race on a soft tyre, but lost the front of the bike as I tried to make the connection with the group in front of me and crashed out of the race. We used a harder front tyre in the second race, but after I made a mistake at the start and lost some ground, my bike broke down and I had to return to the garage. Brno is a track I really like and I came here expecting a lot more, but we have been struggling here all weekend. It was definitely not the weekend we had hoped for."

Johan Stigefelt - Team Manager:
"Our hopes were very high this weekend after our recent test here. It is hard to say what the real problems was, but we have been struggling here since the start of the weekend. Leon found it hard to get to grips with the Brno track, but he did manage to take some points home for us. John had a disappointing weekend as well. We had hoped for better results after his opening practice. It looked good, but did not came through as we had hoped. I think everyone needs the summer break now and I am sure we will come back a lot stronger for the next races."
 
Results Race 1
1. M.Biaggi
2. C.Checa
3. J.Rea
7. Leon Haslam, Stiggy Racing Honda
DNF. John Hopkins, Stiggy Racing Honda

Results Race 2
1. B.Spies
2. M.Biaggi
3. M.Fabrizio
12. Leon Haslam, Stiggy Racing Honda
DNF. John Hopkins, Stiggy Racing Honda
 
Stiggy Honda is sponsored by Hotbodies Racing and uses our windscreens on all of their bikes. Hotbodies Racing specializes in manufacturing high-performance parts for high-performance sportbikes, and is the North American distribution of KR Tuned performance parts. Hotbodies Racing is the market leader in Undertails, Huggers, Windscreens, Flush-Mount Signals, Megaphone Exhausts and full-race Bodywork. Hotbodies Racing supports the sport with sponsorship around the world and encourages dealer and distributor inquiries. For more information visit: www.HOTBODIESRACING.com.