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Haslam looking for upturn in high Miller desert

Tuesday, 24 May 2011 09:24 GMT
Haslam looking for an upturn in the high Miller desert
Situated at a dizzying altitude in the high desert of Utah, USA, the Miller Motorsport Park venue presents a unique challenge to all the current WSBK riders and the teams who must make their machines work well in the thin mountain air. For Leon Haslam Miller is a track with both good and bad memories as he scored a fighting second place in the opening race on a Suzuki last year but was forced to fight a bit too hard in race two and fell, scoring no points.


It was to be the start of a something of a downturn for his season as the pace of relative machine development slowed and the only rider to beat him in the 2010 championship - Max Biaggi - scored an unexpected double win at MMP to move to the top of the championship points for the first time - a position previously occupied by Haslam since the very first race of the year.


Things are maybe shaping up to be different at Miller in 2011 for Haslam, primarily because the pace of machine development for his 2011 machine, the BMW Motorrad Motorsport S1000RR, has been accelerated by a recent test at Misano and the fact that he took a morale-boosting podium finish in race one at the previous round at Monza. Even the broken toe Leon suffered in a race two's multiple rider crash at Monza is causing him little concern.


Miller is now round 5 of 13, not 7 of 13 as it was last year, so Haslam has a lot of races left to spring forward from should he have the kind of weekend he is obviously hoping for in America. He stated. "Salt Lake City is always a great race. It is fantastic to ride in the USA, particularly on ‘Memorial Weekend' when there is a magnificent atmosphere there. The circuit itself is quite different and the layout offers a good mixture of everything. It is a circuit on which you have to fight and it is really difficult to ride. I enjoy going there and am pretty excited to ride the BMW S 1000 RR there."


The recent tests at Misano were a real boon for Haslam, as he and his works BMW team continue to make improvements on the powerful four-cylinder engine in a consistent fashion to handle a wide variety of circuits. "The test in Misano was good and we were able to work through an extensive programme," said Leon. "We also found a good set-up for the track there. That is important, as the next race weekend after the USA takes place in Misano. We were right up there at the front in terms of lap times, particularly on the race tyres. In general, we got an awful lot done there. My broken toe is fine again. We had a few days off that I spent with training and it all will be fine in the US."