Richards turns to Haslam after poor start
Added on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Richards turns to Haslam after poor start
Glen Richards has enlisted the help of World Superbikes rider Leon Haslam this week as he looks to kick-start his British Superbike campaign at Donington.
The HM Plant Honda rider, who has struggled in the championship so far with only one podium finish from a possible four, turned to Haslam ahead of round three of the championship this bank holiday weekend at Donington in an attempt to iron out the problems he faced at Oulton.
A former HM Plant rider himself, Haslam worked with the Aussie at his father’s race school based at the circuit to learn his way around the 2.5m circuit.
“I went down to his race school in Donington and we rode around the track together on road bikes and he gave me some tips,” Richards told the Leicester Mercury.
“When you’re having a bit of a hard time of it, to get to speak to a guy like that who has seen it all before was absolutely fantastic.
“Chatting to Leon, who obviously rode my bike last year, is going to stand me in good stead and hopefully I can go to Donington on the back of that and produce some good results.”
Richards is used to success, having won the British Supersport title last year and the British Superstock title 12 months earlier.
The former Superstock rider also admitted those results mean that only regular podium finishes will suffice at the factory Honda team.
“Given my results in the last couple of seasons, I have got used to being on the podium and so to finish off it at Oulton Park was very disappointing,” he added.
“We obviously had two finishes up there. But I expect to be higher up than that and really challenging and hopefully I can get back to that at Donington.
“Oulton Park was very frustrating because I didn’t ride as I would expect to and I was having a few problems with the bike.
“I have had chance to sit down and have a good think about what was going wrong there and hopefully I should be in better shape at Donington.”
