Haslam Consistency Continues in Italy

Leon Haslam finished in sixth and eighth places respectively in Sundays two races of round 12 of the World Superbike Championship at the Imola circuit in Italy to retain his sixth place in the Championship.


Haslam started from 10th place on the grid in the two 21-lap races and was quick to make up ground once the action got under way. In race one Haslam charged through to fifth place and looked certain to retain that place to the chequered flag but was relegated to sixth in the final corner, crossing the finish line in sixth place.

"I made a pretty good start but my lap times were not good", said Haslam. "I got stuck behind Troy Corser and Shane Byrne in the early laps and the leaders got away. I was then struggling to change direction and had problems under braking.

Ryuichi Kiyonari had got past me at the last chicane for the previous three laps but I got him back each time out of the corner and before the finish line. When he did it on the last lap I then missed a gear on the run to the line and ended up losing out and finishing sixth".

The 26-year-old Stiggy Racing Honda rider gambled on his rear tyre choice for the second encounter of the day and was left struggling for rear grip for the second half of the race, eventually finishing eighth. "I made a good start again but was pushed off the track by Marco Simoncelli and when I came back onto the track I had trouble selecting gears for some reason, reported Haslam. I then got a good rhythm going and ended up in a battle with Jonathan Rea. But he put me on the grass and into the gravel more times than I have been all year.

We both made some hard moves on each other but the pace and lap times werent that bad. Then, for the last 10 laps, the rear tyre went off and I knew wed made a mistake with the gamble we made. Overall I suppose I should be reasonably happy with two top eight finishes but its all credit to the Stiggy Team, they put in a great weekends work for me again".

For more news and Information on Arai please visit http://www.whyarai.co.uk/

Arai – Helping the Heroes

Arai and Phoenix have backed Centurion Racing in helping raise awareness of the charity 'Help for Heroes' and the dedicated work of the medical staff of Headley CourtThe British Supersport team is organising a fantastic day out at the BSB round at Silverstone Circuit on September 27 for service personnel undergoing medical rehabilitation at Headley Court, following injuries sustained while on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

SMR - Hydrex Honda (www.hydrexhonda.com) has generously offered to support the initiative by providing free hospitality throughout the day for the visitors and their medical staff while Silverstone (www.silverstone.co.uk) has kindly donated The Brooklands Suite as a viewing area for the day's racing activities.

We’ve donated two Chaser helmets, which have received Help for Heroes artwork by specialist race helmet design artist Richard Stevens of RichArt Concepts www.richartconcepts.co.uk.

These unique helmets will be worn during the British Supersport race by Centurion’s riders Dan Cooper (#20) and BJ Toal (#36) and following the race they’ll be signed by Superbike and Supersport riders and auctioned to raise money towards the rehabilitation work of Headley Court.

For more information go to: www.helpforheroes.org.uk . See more Arai news / information at http://www.whyarai.co.uk/

WSB: Up And Down Weekend For Arai Riders - 7 September 2009

Round 11 of the World Superbike championship at the Nurburgring, Germany, was a weekend of mixed fortunes for the Arai riders.

Xerox Ducati’s Noriyuki Haga entered the round with a slim points advantage over arch title rival, Ben Spies, but a second place in race one and a race two crash following a collision with Jonathan Rea damaged his title chances as Yamaha-mounted Spies romped to a double victory.

Jonathan Rea just missed out on a podium in race one after a battle for third with Hanspree Ten Kate Honda team mate, Carlos Checa. The young Irishman more than made up for his disappointment with a stunning victory in race two and now sits 45 points behind Michel Fabrizio for third place in the championship.

Stiggy Honda rider Leon Haslam was disappointed after collisions in both races damaged his chances for a podium. The Derbyshire man was involved in the first lap incident in race 1, pushing him back to 11th place. In his true, gritty style, Haslam clawed his way back up the order only to lose out on 5th place at the line behind Max Biaggi.

In Race 2, Leon was holding second before a hard move from Spies pushed him off track and onto an eventual fifth place. John Hopkins suffered more bad luck after being knocked unconscious following a multiple bike incident on the first lap of race one. The popular American was taken to hospital but was later discharged without serious injury.

Haga now trails Spies by 18 points but there is still 150 points up for grabs with three rounds to go.

Race one:

1 Ben Spies, Yamaha

2 Noriyuki Haga, Ducati (Arai)

3 Carlos Checa, Honda

4 Jonathan Rea, Honda (Arai)

5 Max Biaggi, Aprilia

6 Leon Haslam, Honda (Arai)

Race two:

1 Jonathan Rea, Honda (Arai)

2 Ben Spies, Yamaha

3 Carlos Checa, Honda

4 Max Biaggi, Aprilia

5 Leon Haslam, Honda (Arai)

6 Troy Corser, BMW

World Championship points after 11 of 14 rounds:

1 Spies 364

2 Haga 346 (Arai)

3 Fabrizio 289

4 Rea 244 (Arai)

5 Biaggi 224

6 Haslam 201 (Arai)

7 Checa 177

8 Sykes 165

9 Byrne 140

9 Smrz 140 (Arai)

13 Nakano 86 (Arai)

20 Hopkins 17 (Arai)

More news and information: http://www.whyarai.co.uk/

BSB: Seeley Crowned 2010 British Superstock Champion - 1 September 2009

Arai racer Alastair Seeley has secured the 2010 Metzeler British Superstock championship at Cadwell Park (August 31).

Seeley, riding for Relentless Suzuki, wrapped up the championship with two rounds to go, incredibly having won all nine races so far this season.His closest rival, fellow Arai rider and the previous Superstock champion, Steve Brogan, crashed his Padgetts Honda on lap 1 at the hairpin and consequently losing his mathematical chance of retaining the red-backed no.1 plate.

It is unclear whether ‘The Wee Wizard’ will continue to retain his unbeaten form in Superstock or step up to the Superbike class for the remainder of the year.

Congratulation to Alastair from WhyArai.

More news and information: www.whyarai.co.uk