Sykes and his team had to overcome the wet conditions that suddenly showed up on raceday morning with little time for preparations by his crew, but despite this Tom rode his Ninja ZX-10R with style in race one, only giving best to rain specialist Sylvain Guintoli and Marco Melandri. Eventual champion Biaggi fell and no-scored giving Sykes an opportunity to win the title in race two.

Tom led with conviction and pace for the whole of the second outing seeing off an early challenge from Eugene Laverty to record his fourth race victory of the season. Biaggi though was fifth in race two and that was enough for the Italian rider to win his second world championship by only half a point.

Sykes, wearing a Joan Lascorz tribute helmet all weekend in honour of his injured team-mate, won the hearts of the crowd with his brilliant determination and spirit to be champion against the odds, having made up 30 points on Biaggi and only losing the chance of overall victory by half a point because of a quirk of the championship scoring rules.

Tom had known after winter testing that he would have the chance to challenge in 2012, but his and the entire team’s performance had exceeded all expectations. He has taken four wins, 13 podiums in total, nine pole positions and three fastest laps.

Loris Baz, Sykes’ team-mate had a tough home weekend, going tenth in race one then falling hard at high speed in race two. He was taken to hospital for tests afterwards but was later released, suffering just extensive bruising. He finishes his season as a replacement for the injured Joan Lascorz in 13th place, having only joined the series at Donington.

The title deciding Superstock 1000 FIM Cup race was held in wet conditions on Sunday morning and the race was won by Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS Kawasaki). Bryan Staring (Team Pedercini Kawasaki) lost his outside chance of the world title when series leader Sylvain Barrier finished second and took enough points to win the crown. Staring was fifth in the race after falling early on and working his way back up, and fourth in the championship, one place behind Guarnoni.

Tom Sykes: “We were on pole, took a new circuit record, got a podium and then a win and pulled back 30 points on Max Biaggi. Not easy against a rider of his level. Yes, obviously there is a massive disappointment on one hand because we were only half a point from the world championship! But on the other hand, being realistic, we are very happy and we have - by far - overachieved on expectations this year.

We have been very strong and I think this weekend we have been particularly strong; partly because of this Joan Lascorz replica helmet I am wearing. I have had massive support here from my family, friends and the Kawasaki fans so to sum up my year it has been fantastic. I really appreciate that Kawasaki, Provec; all the team our sponsors, Motocard, Leo Vince and all of them have put us in the situation of fighting for the world championship. Hopefully next year we can be very consistent from the start.”

In the Supersport race, the action was as fast and furious as it has been all year. Eventually Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Lorenzini) finished third across the line but was relegated to fourth, leaving Dan Linfoot (MSD R-N Racing Team India) in third place on his Ninja ZX-6R for his first Kawasaki podium. Fabien Foret (Kawasaki Intermoto Step) was also top five race finisher and finished fourth in the championship overall.

Kenan Sofuoglu: “The only problem for us today is that we did not have any wet set-up and it looks like ours was a bit too hard on a wet track. When it started to dry it got a bit better and I could go faster but it was too late and there was a very big gap. I needed a couple of laps more and I tried too much. In the end we bumped and another rider fell.”

Dan Linfoot: “It was a very aggressive race and I have to say a massive thank you to my team and everybody involved. It has been a tough end to a season and of course we only started at Silverstone. We got here and were quite on the pace in qualifying and the rain helped, it was a good leveller. I am really happy and really grateful to be a part of this team in this class.”

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