Leon Haslam | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Haslam signing an autograph at Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2010 wearing Alstare Suzuki World Superbike team colours
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Nationality | English | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
London Borough of Ealing |
31 May 1983 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Current team | JG Speedfit Kawasaki | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bike number | 91 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Website | leonhaslam.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Leon Haslam (born Leon Lloyd Haslam, 31 May 1983, in the London Borough of Ealing) is a motorcycle road racer based in Derbyshire, England. For 2017, he is contracted to race in the British Superbike Championship aboard a Kawasaki ZX-10R.
He began racing at an early age and by the time he was in his late teens, he had raced in most of the significant British and international championships. After the 2004 season on a Ducati in World Superbikes with team mate Nori Haga, between 2005 and 2008 he was a regular front-runner in the British Superbike Championship. For 2009 he returned to the Superbike World Championship, riding for Suzuki, BMW, Honda and Aprilia for 2015. Haslam is nicknamed 'Pocket Rocket' and is the son of former road-racer 'Rocket Ron' Haslam.
Haslam was first exposed to motorcycle racing as a baby, often travelling with his parents to his dad's races. He was 1995 and 1996's National Youth Motocross champion, and 1998's MCN Young Rider of the Year after finishing 7th in the British 125cc Championship. He did an assortment of 125cc races in 1999, but quickly advanced into international racing after that. Leon spent the 2000 season with the underprepared Italjet team on their return to the 125cc world championship, then racing a privateer Honda NSR500V in 2001 (scoring five points finishes, as the youngest rider ever to compete in the series), and a 250cc Honda in 2002 (again scoring points five times). At this stage, having never ridden on competitive machinery, he had valuable experience but little in the way of results, leading him to return home. For 2003 Renegade Ducati signed him to ride in the British Supersport championship, but he was promoted to the full blown Superbike after the departure of Sean Emmett, also riding in six World Superbikes races with a best finish of sixth at Assen and Magny Cours.