Superbikes news - 'We shouldn't have raced' - Haslam hits out at San Juan decision

Six of the field refused to race in the opening round of the weekend over concerns that the track was unfit due to dirt and dust that made the track dangerously, in some eyes, slippery off the racing line.

Haslam, who finished sixth in the reduced race, was angry that he had to race after a big crash on Friday that had left him carrying knee and thumb injuries.

“Honestly, l felt we shouldn’t race and I feel bad that I had to race,” said Haslam.

"I made my point clear that I wanted to make a point not to ride with all the ten other riders that were in that meeting.

"There were several other people who did not want to race that did.

"Each to their own for the decisions - but I feel more sorry for not standing by the guys that didn’t race.

"I did firmly believe that they shouldn’t have raced.”

Eugene Laverty was one of those who refused to take part in Race 1 and he had already hit out at some of his fellow riders, particularly five-time and reigning world champion Jonathan Rea, who he believes has enough influence to have had the race called off altogether.

"There are always going to be a few fellas that want to ride,” Laverty said.

“[Michael Ruben] Rinaldi wanted to ride for whatever reason, but we had guys like the world champion Johnny Rea with us, stood there ready to support us, he didn’t want to ride, Alex Lowes didn’t want to ride… so there weren’t many riders that wanted to.

“Really disappointed in Johnny Rea, he is our representative as the world champion, he needed more backbone, he made a very spineless decision to go and race. It’s something I will speak to him about afterwards.”