Kawasaki Puccetti Racing have called on the services of 2016 British Superbike Championship runner-up rider and World Superbike race winner Leon Haslam for the upcoming test in Portugal this weekend.
Puccetti Racing, who are making the step up to the top tier of production bike racing this season, would have been hoping to build on the foundations laid during the Jerez test this week with Randy Krummenacher. But the Swiss rider, who makes his WorldSBK debut this season, injured himself in a crash with Milwaukee Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty at Turn 1 on the Wednesday of the test.
Haslam was present in Jerez with his JG Speedfit team, with whom he’ll contest the 2017 BSB season alongside Luke Mosey on a ZX-10RR, and posted encouraging times considering the specification of bike he was running.
“Krummenacher injured himself yesterday, so they (Puccetti Racing) want me to go to Portimao and put in some laps to see where the bike is before it gets put in crates and shipped to Phillip Island,” the Briton said to UK-based bike racing news website bikesportnews.com.
Despite the last minute change of plans for him, Haslam sees this test as a good opportunity to learn the WorldSBK version of the new Kawasaki should he make any wild card appearances in 2017.
“From my perspective, Kawasaki have asked me to do it and it will help if we are to do some wild cards this year as I will have ridden the bike in WorldSBK trim before,” added Haslam, who made a one-off appearance in the world championship last season in Qatar with Pedercini Kawasaki.
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