In readiness for the Assen race weekend Sykes completed a planned test at the former SBK venue of Valencia last Tuesday and Wednesday. Track conditions were not in the team’s favour but as always

Sykes and his team learned more valuable lessons about the ever-improving Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R. Sykes will ride as a lone competitor for the official Kawasaki squad this weekend as his team-mate Joan Lascorz continues his recovery in a Barcelona hospital, after sustaining an injury to his C6 vertebra in a recent testing crash.

The overall official Kawasaki SBK effort has seen all its hard work in the winter months rewarded with a third and two second places already for Sykes in 2012, with Tom consistently fast in qualifying and the overall machine package proving capable of running close to the front over full race distances.

Sykes has won both Superpole contests so far and has only been off the podium once, in fourth place in the opening race in Australia. The next aim for Sykes must be take his first 2012 season win, to add to the success he scored last year in Germany. He is currently only six points from championship leader Carlos Checa.

Team Pedercini Kawasaki will have David Salom and new SBK rider Leandro Mercado competing in Superbike, while in the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup Bryan Staring and Jeremy Guarnoni will represent the Pedercini name once more.

Imola podium man Loris Baz made a superb sprint to second place in the 1000cc Superstock category, taking his MRS Ninja ZX-10R to within 0.7 seconds of a race win in his return to the big Superstock class.

For all riders the chance to compete at Assen is a treat, with its unique layout and fast corners a true test of man and machine. Only the weather can be an unpredictable factor at Assen, situated as it is in the very north of the Netherlands.

Tom Sykes: “We showed we had some speed at Assen last year, in terms of sheer speed. But, with the new balance we have found on the Ninja ZX-10R , I am confident we can keep things going in an even better direction this year. I got a chance to test after Imola but the track conditions were very poor at Valencia, as bad as I have ever experienced there. Even at the end of two days I was leaving a big dust trail behind me down the straights.

We tried out some things on the bike and we still found a couple of things on the bike that we can use later in the season, maybe. And of course every bit of information we discover in testing is very useful to us. I have some good people working with me and they seem to be able to put all the data together into a race package, which is a great asset to have. They are always thinking ahead.”

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