Assen is Pata Honda’s home race and track as they are based 60km from the Dutch circuit.
Jonathan Rea will be trying to defend his record at the circuit – he was won there for three straight consecutive years – with a double victory in 2010.
Hopefully at Assen Rea and Haslam won’t have the same technical issues on their CBR1000RR’s like they had at Aragon, where Rea had brake adjuster problem that forced him to pit and then rejoin, while Haslam also had braking issues.
“I’m looking forward to getting back on track there after our busy testing build-up to the last round in Spain,” said Rea.
“The boys have done a lot of work since Aragon and looked at a lot of data, so we’ve hopefully got a few new settings to try this weekend, especially around the throttle connection.
We’ll start with free practice on Friday to try and turn it into a competitive package for two 22-lap races on Sunday.
I hope the weather is a bit more consistent than it was last season but it would certainly be nice to get another good result at Assen.
”Haslam believes that Assen will suit not only his riding style but also his Honda.
The British rider has been on the podium with a Honda in 2009 and also a Suzuki in 2010.
“I’m really looking forward to getting on the bike again at Assen as we know that it goes well there from Johnny’s results here.
I like Assen, too, and finished twice on the podium the last time I was here on the Honda CBR.
We made a lot of progress with the bike during our testing in Spain but it was unfortunate that we had some issues which affected our race weekend at Aragon.
Assen has corner characteristics that suit our chassis and there’s no long straight, so we’re hoping for better results this time out,” said Haslam.
