Trailing in the World Superbike Championship standings by 37 points, Leon Haslam has called on Suzuki Japan to lend him more support if they want to contend with Max Biaggi and Aprilia for the WSBK title. Losing the World Superbike lead at Miller Motorsports Park, Haslam and Suzuki have found the Aprilia of Biaggi slowly out-classing them at races.
Orginially favorited to win WSBK this year, Haslam says that unless Suzuki allocates more resources to his racing effort, the Japanese manufacturer will miss a golden opportunity to win a World Championship title, which is code for “Hey Suzuki, satellite bikes are beating your factory MotoGP team”.
Not all factory teams are made equally, as Haslam points out from his team’s hard work in honing in the 2010 Suzuki GSX-1000R. “We do all our own development work and it’s because of all the hard work, that we are competitive. If Suzuki Japan wanted to give us some more help, it would be much appreciated and it would be a great benefit to us all.” said Haslam.
After showing a very strong testing session at Imola this week, Haslam is showing that Alstare still has some game in the fight. However, help from Japan could give the WSBK Champion hopefuls the extra kick in the pants they need in order to surpass the impressive racing effort from WSBK semi-newbies Aprilia.
With MotoGP being the larger expense in Suzuki’s racing budget, it would seem that Haslam’s plea focuses on a more pragmatic and results-oriented perspective. If you were Suzuki, which team would you back?
Source: Crash.net; Photo: Alstare Suzuki
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