Kawasaki Superbike
Tom Sykes has been a revelation in the past few World Superbike races, taking his long-in-the-tooth 2010 Kawasaki Racing Team ZX-10R to the point of podium challenges, and winning Superpole at the last round in Imola.
The Paul Bird Motorsports operated team has recently found some settings that allow Sykes to use the superbike’s strong points to the maximum, and the motorcycle racer from Yorkshire in England has made best use of them, posting a season best of fourth last time out.
Sykes is 14th in the overall World SBK rankings and has a real chance of catching Jakub Smrz, who is only three points ahead, if he repeats his recent form.
Tom Sykes (on the eve of the final round) says: “I am keeping my feet firmly on the ground to see where we end up this weekend.”
He continued, “We have a good little base setting working now, which was good in Germany and in Italy. So it is now more a case of fine-tuning the set-up of the bike around our optimum setting for the Magny-Cours round, and hopefully the bike will work well again. We will see what the weekend brings.”
2010 Standings Riders – FIM Superbike World Championship
- Max Biaggi – Aprilia – 413
- Leon Haslam – Suzuki – 350
- Jonathan Rea – Honda – 288
- Carlos Checa – Ducati – 274
- Cal Crutchlow – Yamaha – 239
- Noriyuki Haga – Ducati – 238
- James Toseland – Yamaha – 187
- Sylvain Guintoli – Suzuki – 184
- Michel Fabrizio – Ducati – 169
- Troy Corser – BMW – 165
- Leon Camier – Aprilia – 164
- Shane Byrne – Ducati – 154
- Ruben Xaus – BMW – 96
- Tom Sykes – Kawasaki – 93
- Jakub Smrz – Aprilia – 89
- Lorenzo Lanzi- Ducati – 83
- Luca Scassa – Ducati – 70
- Max Neukirchner – Honda – 47
- Roger Lee Hayden – Kawasaki – 10
- Chris Vermeulen – Kawasaki – 10
- Broc Parkes – Honda – 9
- Joshua Brookes – Honda – 6
- Matteo Baiocco – Kawasaki – 6
- Ian Lowry – Kawasaki – 4
- Federico Sandi – Aprilia – 3
- Sheridan Morais – Aprilia – 3
- Andrew Pitt – BMW – 3
- Fabrizio Lai – Honda – 2
