Tom Sykes admits he was ‘fairly disappointed' to see victory slip through his fingers in both Bennetts British Superbike races at Cadwell Park, but was nonetheless pleased to come away with second in the championship.
Sykes was looking a strong bet for victory around the Lincolnshire circuit after winning pole position and topping three of the four practice sessions leading up to the races.
However, while he led the way early on in both races, he was hunted down and passed by Leon Haslam, leaving Sykes to curse his missed opportunity at adding to his three wins this season.
Nonetheless, two more podiums have strengthened his position in the overall standings having leapfrogged Cal Crutchlow to the provisional runners-up spot. Although not entirely ruling out a late title offensive, Sykes concedes that he will look to consolidate his position now over the final six races.
“I am fairly disappointed because it would have been nice to grab a couple of wins,” he told
Crash.net Radio. “We have to look at the positives though because we did grab two second places and we have moved up to second in the overall standings.
“I think we can go to
Croft and pick up where we left off, so if we can get a couple wins then that would great. The aim now must be to hold onto second place in the championship. If Shakey makes plenty of mistakes we might even get first, but it looks slim!
Looking back at the races, Sykes admits he was frustrated to lose out to Haslam at the same point on the circuit in both races, but pointed out that clinging onto the lead could have led to him slipping further back in the long run.
“That is the only passing place on the circuit. Anywhere else on a Superbike is wishful thinking but he was getting a good run out of the turn onto the back straight, so all I could have been was defensive and those behind would have been able to catch us. Fair play to Leon, he stuffed me in the same place, but I couldn't do much about it.”
