2013 Kawasaki Racing Team World Superbike Video
The 2013 World Superbike Championship continues this weekend with the first European round of the season at Motorland Aragon in Spain.
One team that is anticipating some good results this weekend at round 2 of 15 is the Kawasaki Racing Team. This will be KRT’s home round, and its riders – Tom Sykes (66) and Loris Baz (76) – are looking to improve upon their results at the opening round of 2013 World SBK at Phillip Island seven weeks ago.
Sykes finished 5-5 at the Australian round, though he was still feeling the effects of some injuries sustained at practice for the round (three broken ribs, broken left forearm). Sykes will be looking to gain some momentum as he had in 2012 World SBK. Last year, the Brit took a record nine poles and finished a half point behind the now retired Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team RSV4).
As for Baz, he finished sixth in race one, but suffered a DNF due to a crash with BMW Motorrad GoldBet’s Chaz Davies.
During that down time between Phillip Island and Aragon this weekend, Sykes and Baz participated in some private testing at Aragon with FIXI Cresent Suzuki (Leon Camier, Jules Cluzel) and Pata Honda (Leon Haslam, Jonathan Rea). During the three-day test, Sykes put in the fastest laps aboard his ZX-10R.
The testing allowed Sykes and Baz some further tuning of their perspective ZX-10R Ninja superbikes for this weekend’s round.
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team ZX-10R Superbike) says: “Testing at Aragon last week was very important and now we have to look at our tyre options for the race weekend because we did not get the chance to do long runs right at the end.
“It was good to get out and ride at Motorland and the only thing I was not sure of before then was my physical condition. I am much happier now as I have woken up my arm muscles and my wrist feels better for being used properly at the tests. I am looking forward to race weekend now because what we tried at the tests has brought us some positives.”
Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team ZX-10R Superbike) sasy: “I think that we improved our feeling with the front in our recent tests and I think we have taken a step forward on the whole bike as well.
“I am confident for the race now. We also tried out a qualifying tire in the tests to improve what I can gain in one fast lap and we did well with that. I think we have improved everything. I am happy to go racing and we still have some new things to try. We will fight during the race weekend as we did a lot of laps to get a good race pace in testing. We had a good test and the base to start from is perfect.”
Attached above is a video of Kawasaki’s Sykes and Baz during the testing at Aragon. For a preview of this weekend’s Aragon World Superbike round, click here.