Leon Haslam

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'Pocket Rocket' Leon Haslam, son of 'Rocket' Ron Haslam, is a motorcycle racer from Smalley, Derbyshire, England. He had raced in most of the significant British and international championships whilst still in his teens, spending the whole 2000 season with the underprepared ItalJet team in the 125cc world championship, then racing a 500cc Honda in 2001, and a 250cc Honda in 2002. He gained valuable experience from these years, but few top 10 finishes.

For 2003 Renegade Ducati signed him, and he did rounds of the British Supersport, British Superbike and World Superbike championships, adjusting quickly to all 3. For 2004 he did the full WSBK season for Renegade alongside Noriyuki Haga. He was 8th overall with a best of 3rd, but it would be unfair not to mention his impressive victory in a British Superbike race at Brands Hatch on one of the team's 3 ventures into the series. In torrential rain, this was the only Ducati win in the series all year, even though this was the title-winning bike in both 2003 (Shane "Shakey" Byrne) and 2005 (Gregorio Lavilla).

It was BSB full-time for Leon in 2005 with the GSE team, with the Airwaves Ducati team, finishing 4th overall behind only Lavilla and the two HM Plant Hondas of Ryuichi Kiyonari and Michael Rutter. In the first 12 races of the season he finished 2nd no less than 8 times, without winning a race but taking 3 poles and lying 2nd overall. He ultimately did win races, but finished as championahip runner-up behind Ryuichi Kiyonari's Honda.