Kawasaki WSBK - Silverstone

[MadKaw]

Home Race For Sykes And High Hopes For Both KRT Riders
WSBK, Silverstone, Great Britain, 30 July 2012
Englishman Tom Sykes and Frenchman Loris Baz will be out to get on the podium again this weekend, as they each did last time out, with Silverstone providing the second home race of 2012 for Sykes. Tom’s season on the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R has now included one race win, eight podiums, seven Superpole qualifying victories and three fastest laps. Most significantly of all, his two most recent second place finishes at Brno pushed him back into the top three in the championship, 38 points behind second place rider Marco Melandri and eight points ahead of fourth place rider Carlos Checa.

Tom has occupied a top three place in the championship rankings for virtually the whole season, only dropping out of this ranking after being taken out at Motorland Aragon.

For Sykes racing at his home round will bring extra pressures as well as extra pleasures but the combination of man, machine and team has shown its resilience on many occasions.

Loris Baz scored a personal career high point last time out at Brno, securing a podium finish in third, in only his ninth individual SBK race. The nineteen-year old rider is getting more and more comfortable on his official Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R with every outing and was even moved to say that he felt he had been riding the bike for over a year when he got on the podium at Brno.

The fact that a young talent like Loris, only nineteen and in his rookie SBK season, was able to finish on the podium at such an early stage of his career clearly demonstrates how much progress is being made in race development of the overall Ninja ZX-10R package.

Kawasaki Team Pedercini Superbike riders David Salom and Leandro Mercado will be out to their points tally at a circuit which is fast in places and slow in others. Salom made great strides forward in regulation qualifying at Brno, a factor that fills the team with some more optimism for strong raceday results in England.

Superstock 1000 FIM Cup rider Bryan Staring (Kawasaki Team Pedercini) has now won back-to-back victories and in doing so has moved up to third place in the points ranking overall. MRS Kawasaki rider Jeremy Guarnoni has posted two podium finishes in the most recent races, building his confidence to carry on his upwardly mobile season. He is currently fifth.

Tom Sykes: “I am looking forward to getting to Silverstone to ride in front of a home crowd. If the weather is anything like as nice it has been in the last week then all the better. Going there, especially off the back of a strong weekend in Brno, is a little bit more exciting. I am looking forward to it even more. We made another step in the set-up of the Ninja ZX-10R last time out and that was witnessed by a lot of people. When the bike is working at its absolute best they can see how much better a job I can do. I am confident that when we nail the set-up each time I will be able to back up my strong qualifying performances. Our good results are due to a lot of hard work from Kawasaki, the team, and all our technical suppliers. I am glad we had two good races in Brno and grateful for the way things turned out, but to get two really good results in front of a home round means I will be even more satisfied. Sometimes at home rounds I find myself short of time because I know so many people, and we get to do more signing sessions, etc, so there are a few elements of preparation you have to keep focused on at your home races.”

Loris Baz: “I know Silverstone from when I raced in Superstock and from BSB and I like the track; it is really good. It is also difficult because it has fast sections, slow sections, changes of direction and lots of changes in speed. I am looking forward to it especially after the good weekend we had in Brno, so we need to confirm this now. I look forward to going to England again because I speak English almost every day now and we communicate inside the team to work in English because everyone understands it.”

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Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R Riders Aiming For Victory Once Again
WSS, Silverstone, Great Britain, 31 July 2012
Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Lorenzini) has a useful 23-point lead going into the ninth round of the championship but he is by no means the only Kawasaki rider in with a chance of WSS victory in the UK. Kenan has won two races so far this year, at Phillip Island and Misano Adriatico, but Kawasaki Intermoto Step rider Fabien Foret has also secured two victories, at Imola and the previous race at Brno. That most recent maximum points score pushed him up to third in the championship, only six points behind second place rider Sam Lowes.

At Silverstone both top-ranked Kawasaki riders will be out for the win but the third Ninja ZX-6R rider to have secured a podium place this year, Sheridan Morais (Kawasaki Lorenzini), is more than eager to get his second run at the top-three places.

Rookie WSS rider Romain Lanusse (Kawasaki Intermoto Step) is now in 17th place after scoring good points in the past two races, with Joshua Day (GoEleven Kawasaki) 21st overall so far. New Kawasaki effort, MSD R-N Racing Team India, should add the recently injured Dan Linfoot to make a two-rider line up this weekend, after Florian Marino made his debut appearance at Brno, and scored points in the process.

Kenan Sofuoglu: “I think Silverstone is a nice track. I do not know it on my Kawasaki but there are some very fast corners and some slow corners on the new part. I cannot say it is my favourite track but the only thing that matters is that my bike feels nice on the circuit, and that I will see on Friday. A rider should not have the chance to say he likes this track or that track; we should be able to ride well on any track. It will be difficult to say before Friday how things will be but we should find a set-up for Saturday to take into race day.”

Sheridan Morais: “I have been to Silverstone before, last year in the Superstock 1000 race, and I really liked the track. I look forward to every race but I think this one is going to be good. I have been going through a lot of data from last year with my telemetrist and watching the race back on video. I think we should have a good base setting. I think it was good preparation to ride on the big 1000cc Superstock bike at this round last year, because the 600cc bike is just that little bit tamer. Things are good with me in general, doing the usual training and so on but after Silverstone I will go home to South Africa for about ten days before we head to the new Moscow race.”

[laidback]

Go the green...

[KEL10R]

3 in a row for Bryan Staring
and Tom Sykes taking out both wsbk races
Go Team Green...

[MadKaw]

Weather Plays Its Part For Sykes and Baz In Superpole
WSBK, Silverstone, Great Britain, 4 August 2012
Disturbed and frequently changing weather conditions held back the Superpole push of local man Tom Sykes and teenage rider Loris Baz at Silverstone, with Sykes eighth and Baz ninth after Superpole. Superpole was declared wet and both official KRT riders were caught out by the slippery conditions on some parts of the track, with other sections offering more outright grip, even in wet conditions.

Sykes fell in Superpole two, and had to settle for a second row start, not his more regular place on the front row, after his previous seven Superpole wins in 2012. He had headed combined qualifying as fastest man, before the wet Superpole rules came into play.

Baz will start Sunday’s races from row three, in ninth place, but still in with a good chance on raceday, no matter the conditions, as good set-up work was done in wet, dry and intermediate conditions. Loris had been an impressive seventh quickest in combined qualifying.

Kawasaki Team Pedercini Superbike rider David Salom found it hard to get a good set-up on the ever-changing track surface and qualified 21st overall. David Johnson rode the second Pedercini Kawasaki machine at this meeting and qualified 22nd.

Superstock 1000 FIM Cup rider Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS Kawasaki) was second fastest in combined qualifying, while Mathieu Lussiana (Team ASPI Kawasaki) was fourth. Bryan Staring (Kawasaki Team Pedercini) was 14th in qualifying.

Tom Sykes: “It was a strange track today because yesterday in the wet initial grip felt better but today it felt greasy and it does not help when it is wet, dry, wet, and generally very inconsistent. We were unfortunate in Superpole but in the dry the bike is working well, so I feel confident. We put 15 laps in this morning in one go and I was on a personal best in the last of those laps, but then the rain came. So it was pleasing to see that we could have good pace so far into a simulated race. If it is a dry race day we should be OK. Superpole was wet and we have changed the balance of the bike quite a lot so we are having to learn and try to do things a bit differently, but when the track is not wet for long enough it limits our track time. It was unfortunate to fall in Superpole 2 but I had only put two laps on the tyre and I was just slowly trying to build up speed. Tomorrow is another day and we have good guys in the garage so we will make some improvements and hopefully things will be a bit more straightforward, especially with the weather.”

Loris Baz: “I am confident for the race at Silverstone and we have been in the top ten most of the time in practice, no matter the conditions. That is another step forward for us. In my crash in Superpole I touched the white line a little. Not a big mistake but a big consequence. It is a shame but sometimes these things happen. We had a good pace in the wet and at least I did not crash pushing, just for a small mistake. We have a good pace for the race in dry or wet so I am confident for tomorrow. I do not care about the weather we have because we cannot change it!”

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Disturbed Weather Holds Back Kawasaki WSS Riders
WSS, Silverstone, Great Britain, 4 August 2012
Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Lorenzini) was the top Ninja ZX-6R rider on display in qualifying at Silverstone, tenth after enduring practice sessions which were affected by changeable weather conditions. The unpredicatable British weather determined much of the fortunes of the best Kawasaki WSS riders but Sofuoglu was also riding with a swollen knee joint, after an old injury flared up again during the rigours of race weekend.

Kenan’s Kawasaki Lorenzini team-mate Sheridan Morais was also caught out by weather conditions and by losing some valuable track time this morning but he recovered and qualified 15th, with more improvements to come in warm-up for the tough South African rider.

Rookie WSS rider Romain Lanusse (Kawasaki Intermoto Step) was 13th on the grid and his teammate Fabien Foret was 17th, with the experienced Foret expected to move forward rapidly on race day.

New MSD R-N Racing Team India Kawasaki man Dan Linfoot was 19th, Joshua Day (GOELEVEN Kawasaki) went 20th while Florian Marino was 25th overall for the MSD R-N Racing Team India Kawasaki squad.

Kenan Sofuoglu: “One of the issues is that my knee is quite swollen at this event so the joint is not moving in a natural way. That makes it is impossible to push down on the footpeg hard, in a way I would like to at least. I have been to the Clinica Mobile to get some treatment and I am grateful for the help they have given me. I will have to ride around the problem tomorrow to make a good result, but we are all very determined.”

Sheridan Morais: “We had wet and dry and not quite dry conditions so in qualifying we are only in 15th place. Our first session was our only dry one and although we were not happy with our position on the grid today we were happy with where we were going in set-up direction and we are moving forward. We lost some track time this morning but the guys are finding out quite a bit after the final session in the afternoon so I am hoping now that we can make a clean start and make a good race out of it.”

[MadKaw]

Baz Scores Brilliant First Win And Another Podium
WSBK, Silverstone, Great Britain, 5 August 2012
Loris Baz took his Kawasaki Racing Team Ninja ZX-10R to a race one victory and then second place in race two at Silverstone, on a day when Tom Sykes defended his third place in the points table. Baz won an incredibly confused first race, which was delayed as the weather went from reasonably dry to wet, after pushing his way to the front of a group of riders who were running slick tyres on a damp surface. Risking a lot but riding assuredly Baz ignored that fact that this was only his 11th race start at this level of competition, and he became the second youngest rider in SBK history to win a full SBK race.

In race two, his 12th career SBK race, Baz finished second in strange circumstances. Running on wets on a track that got wetter and eventually covered in both oil and fuel from other rider’s machines, Baz hunted down early leaders Sylvain Guintoli and Jakub Smrz. When in the lead on lap ten Baz was to fall but the race was stopped soon after, and thanks to the count back rules, it as called a result after only eight laps, placing Loris second overall. Half points were awarded, so Loris got ten points and not the 20 he would have normally been awarded, with race winner Guintoli getting 12.5.

For Sykes the promise of much at Silverstone was washed away by the weather and simple bad luck. Having had his bike rebuilt before raceday his set-up in race one did not last all the distance, and his lap one lead ended up as eighth place. In race two he fell on oil or fuel, which had been spilled on a wet track and with many other riders he persuaded Race Control to stop the race. He would finally be classified 12th.
Most importantly for Tom, his main championship rivals also had tough days so he kept third place overall. He is now 51.5 points behind the leader Max Biaggi, and 41 points behind second place rider Marco Melandri.

Kawasaki Team Pedercini Superbike rider David Salom was 15th and then a retiree in race two. His team-mate at Silverstone David Johnson fell in the first attempt to run race one, and did not start the real race one or race two.

Superstock 1000 FIM Cup rider Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS) was only 0.2 seconds from the win after a strong ride from the Frenchman and a great fight from Bryan Staring (Kawasaki Team Pedercini) put him third. In the points Staring is third, Guarnoni fourth, with three rounds remaining.

Loris Baz: “It is really special to win and to win in England because I raced here in BSB last year for a while. I would also like to thank Kawasaki for believing in me. We made no mistakes in race one and finished up front. I think in the dry we are also really fast and we can fight for the first five or seven places. I chose the slick tyre because it was the best choice in race one. The conditions in race one were crazy for a while and early on I was missing some grip but when I saw the rains coming I pushed hard even though it was quite wet but I stayed on the bike and I am really happy, as you can imagine, for this victory. I want to thank all the team and we are also thinking of Joan Lascorz, because this victory is for him now. As for race two it was amazing to be here inside the top three again. The start of race two was not so wet so I just tried to keep my tyres, and then it started to move back up to Kuba and Sylvain, passed them both and them before falling, I think it was the right decision to take the race results back to lap eight because there was a lot of fuel on the track for two laps, and a lot of water. I am really happy and thanks to all my crew and Kawasaki again.”

Tom Sykes: “The general conditions in race two I was very annoyed about. For sure there was some contamination on the track, it was very greasy and I saw it for two laps and had tried to get the race red flagged. Lots of people crashed and it was red flagged on the lap I crashed. Now, lots of people have been put in the results from previous laps. It could have been worse today but I am disappointed that we did not come away with more points when we could have done. We are still third in the championship so we will just forget this one and move on.”

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Sofuoglu Top Kawasaki Rider In England And Still Championship Leader
WSS, Silverstone, Great Britain, 5 August 2012
Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Lorenzini) left Silverstone with his championship lead trimmed a little after finishing in a battling fifth place, with two other top Kawasaki riders just behind him. Kenan had been pushed off track early in the 16-lap contest and had to work hard to get close to the leading pack of four, but he was unable to close that gap and settled for fifth place. His injured left knee joint was not the problem in the race that he feared it may be.

Sheridan Morais (Kawasaki Lorenzini) improved on his qualifying position to get seventh place after a strong ride through the field, and he now sits sixth overall.

Kawasaki Intermoto Step rider Fabien Foret was sixth in the race after not finding a perfect set-up due to weather conditions in qualifying and practice. he remains in the championship hunt in fourth place.

Romain Lanusse (Kawasaki Intermoto Step) scored 14th place and MSD R-N Racing Team India rider Florian Marino was 19th, despite getting a ride through penalty for jump-starting. Joshua Day (GoEleven Kawasaki) and Kawasaki rider Dan Linfoot (MSD R-N Racing Team India) failed to finish.

Kenan Sofuoglu: “My knee was OK but in the early laps some riders touched each other and I almost crashed, then had to run straight on. When I got back on I think I was in about 20th position. Then I pushed hard to come back. But the problem is that we did not make a real dry session all weekend so my bike was not really set-up for dry conditions. I pushed as much as possible but I made lots of risk. I tried to close up to the front and I think I did so for a while, but there was not enough time. I eased it a bit on the last two or three laps. Anyway, only fifth but we made points and we can look forward to the next race.”

Sheridan Morais: “I had a good race really, to come back from 15th to seventh was not bad but I think we could have done a bit better had the conditions in practice not been so tricky this weekend. I am happy with the setup given that situation so the guys did a really good job again. I think we could have changed one or two small things but we did the best we could have. I am happy and really grateful to all the guys involved.”

Fabien Foret: “I have to admit that because of the conditions in practice we were running late in settings and so on. Also, starting from where I was starting from I gambled on a soft tyre, but it was just the wrong choice. I finished where I finished because of that, but it is all ifs and buts. It cannot always be like it was in Brno so let us move on to Russia and try for the same as Brno.”