Category:
Racing
Created: 02 October 2006
Leon Haslam starts the title deciding final round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, at Brands Hatch, from pole position, with his two rivals for the sport’s premier crown, Gregorio Lavilla and Ryuichi Kiyonari starting from the second row of the grid.
Their hopes of matching, or bettering, the time of Haslam were ended by a light rain shower in the closing minutes of the session in which the 23 year old Derbyshire rider enjoyed topping the qualifying leaderboard for the fifth time this season to clinch the Audi Performance Award which rewards consistent speed in the grid deciding session over all 13 rounds.
Haslam will receive the keys to the limited edition Audi S4 Cabriolet, valued at £50,000, just before the first of the two races that will decide the outcome of the crown he is so determined to win, even though he starts these races nine points down on his Airwaves Ducati team-mate, defending champion Lavilla, who has a single point lead over HM Plant Honda rider Kiyonari.
What you don't see much of either as a spectator at the races is what goes on behind the scenes, so we thought we would concentrate on the less prime-time events such as SBK and Supersport and look at what goes on for the Superstock and Yamaha Virgin R6 Cup teams.
Also present today was the Rizla Suzuki MotoGP team, with one of their riders; John Hopkins. The team warmed the bike up in the pit-lane, running through various high-tech digital check-lists, which brought a big crowd from the other garages to listen to the thunder this bike emits. Later in the day John rode the bike round the GP circuit to familiarise himself with it, which whilst the track was still wet, was hugely entertaining for everyone there.
Related GalleriesBSB Final @ Brands Hatch '06 - Sunday #3BSB Final @ Brands Hatch '06 - Sunday #2BSB Final @ Brands Hatch '06 - Sunday #1BSB Final @ Brands Hatch '06 - Friday
