Kawasaki WSB / WSS - Kyalami

[MadKaw]

High End Finish Is The Aim For Tom
WSBK, Kyalami, South Africa, 11 May 2010
The 4.246km circuit of Kyalami is the venue for the sixth round of the Superbike World Championship, as both Tom Sykes and Chris Vermeulen go for strong points scores yet again. Sykes was on superb form in qualifying and in the two Monza races themselves a few days ago, and he intends to keep the momentum up as he attacks the hills and bumps of the intense Kyalami circuit. Monza was a personal best in Kawasaki colours for Tom, with his top five in race two taking him to 14th in the championship, after five rounds.

Located just outside Johannesburg in South Africa, Kyalami is a known quantity for the English rider, who rode there last year and left with two top ten finishes.

Chris Vermeulen last raced at Kyalami in his Supersport days, and is therefore on an early mission to reacquaint himself with the spectator-friendly circuit.

Chris is continuing his recuperation from a serious injury to his right knee suffered in Australia in February, riding through the pain barrier in his wish to get back to competitiveness at the earliest opportunity.

The high altitude Kyalami venue in the Gauteng region of South Africa is a real test for both man and machine, with the physical nature of the track not helped by its short main straight and the thin air dropping horsepower compared to most circuits. The layout offers few, if any opportunities for the riders to rest between the many corners and changes of elevation.

Tom Sykes: “I’m really looking forward to this weekend in Kyalami as it’s coming straight off the back of a good weekend in Monza. That gave the team and myself a big boost in time for the busy part of the race calendar. We have been making steady progress over the past few races and we were over the moon to have come away with a top five and top ten finishes at the last round. The Kawasaki appeared to do fairly well here last year with Sheridan Morais and Broc Parkes so I’m looking forward to jumping on the bike again and facing the challenge of this old-school circuit. The key now is to continue our consistency and maintain the level of results from the previous few races.”

Chris Vermeulen: “After my return at Assen I was determined to make up some ground but unfortunately my knee is still not 100% and I found it more difficult in Monza than I would have liked. I’m continuing to work hard on rehabilitation and physiotherapy and I am certain that the more I ride, the more movement I will get back in the knee. I have high expectations of myself but I have to be patient and work away at getting back to the platform where I think we are at. I have raced in Kyalami before in World Supersport but I can honestly say that I don’t have much of a memory of being there! I will more or less treat this as a new track and hope that I can bounce back to consistent point scoring finishes.”

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Intense Weekend Ahead For Supersport Riders
WSS, Kyalami, South Africa, 11 May 2010
Round six of a busy World Supersport race season takes place at Kyalami in South Africa only a few days after the culmination of round five at Monza, Italy. Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Motocard.com) finished third at Monza, his fifth podium score in a row. Remarkably third place (only just over three seconds from a win) was Joan’s lowest individual race score yet. Previously he had taken three second places and one win; the latter at Valencia in his native Spain in round three. Now on a total of 101 points, Joan leads Kenan Sofuoglu by four points, and Eugene Laverty by ten.

Katsuaki Fujiwara (Kawasaki Motocard.com) has enjoyed some high and low points so far as he competes at the top level once more on his Ninja ZX-6R. Kats had his best result of the 2010 season so far at Monza, going fifth in the race and up ninth place in the overall rankings. So close is the midfield battle that he is only seven points from a stand-alone fifth place, meaning there is much to play for in Kyalami for him as well as his team-mate.

Kyalami was the scene of Kawasaki’s first ever Supersport World Championship win, in 1999 for Iain MacPherson. Andrew Pitt also scored a second Kyalami victory for Kawasaki in the 2002 season.

Joan Lascorz: “We have been very good at getting on the podium this year and that is why we are on top of the championship table. Last year Kyalami was difficult for me, and Laverty was very fast then. I finished fourth but I think we will be better this year. We have taken one race win so far, but I enter every weekend with the same goal - to win each race. We will have the same aim in South Africa again.”

Katsuaki Fujiwara: “I know the Kyalami track and I hope we can have a competitive race there. I want to score more good points like we did in Monza. The Kyalami surface is bumpy so we will have to work on the chassis settings to absorb the bumps and still keep up a good race pace.”