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Leon Haslam Profile |
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Birth Date: May 31, 1983
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Birth Place: Smalley, Derbyshire, England
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Birth Name: Leon Haslam
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Height:
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Biography |
'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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. |
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since June 9, 2008