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 (the youngest ever to compete in the series), and a 250cc Honda in 2002. He gained valuable experience from these years, but few top 10 finishes.
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[edit] Career
[edit] 2003
For 2003 Renegade Ducati signed him, and he did rounds of the British Supersport, British Superbike and Superbike World Championships, adjusting quickly to all 3.
[edit] 2004
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).
[edit] 2005
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.
[edit] 2006
2006 saw Leon once again on the Airwaves sponsored GSE Ducati 999, partnering Gregorio Lavilla. In the first 12 races of the 2006 season he finished 2nd no less than 8 times, without winning a race but taking 3 poles and lying 2nd overall.
He managed to push for the title all the way to the last race of the season at a rain soaked Brands Hatch where Leon, Lavilla and Kiyonari all had a chance to win. Leon was running second to Kiyo in the first race when it was stopped after Shane Byrne crashed heavily, and despite storming to victory in the second race, he ended the season in second place and Lavilla, who crashed in race one was third. Leon did however drive off in the £50,000 Audi convertible which was his prize for scoring the most points in the Audi pole position competition.
[edit] 2007
While Lavilla won the first four races and leads the championship after eight, Haslam has struggled to match these results. However, two second places at Oulton Park in round four moved him up to fourth overall.
[edit] 2008
Haslam leaves Ducati for 2008, joining Airwaves' rivals HM Plant Honda for 2008. He was excluded from race 2 at Oulton Park after a racing incident with Tom Sykes[1].
[edit] Personal life
Leon is currently dating ex-glamour model Olivia Stringer. The pair are living in Derbyshire, close to the Haslam family home. He owns the cue that Peter Ebdon used to win the 2002 World Snooker Championship, and has it framed on his wall.
