Tom Sykes says he has reason to be pleased ahead of the eight World Superbike Championship round at Motorland Aragon, after completing an intensive day of testing around the Spanish venue.
The British rider joined a handful of his rivals in conducting a two-day test at the Aragon circuit, which made its
WSBK calendar debut in 2011, though he was only able to get dry track time in on the second day.
Nonetheless, Sykes was still able to complete the equivalent of four races over the course of the day as he worked on improving his pace over a long distance, having converted just one of the ten races he has started from pole position into a victory.
Also taking the opportunity to fine-tune the Kawasaki's wet set-up, Sykes says he was happy with the lap times when compared with last year's race, where he was a top five finisher on a less competitive machine.
“We have done some amount of testing! My crew chief has worked me hard, the equivalent of over four races. I am very happy with the progress, generally speaking. We have found some tyre life and looking at a comparison with last year's lap times, I am happy.
“We also tried a couple of things in the wet on day one to improve our settings in those conditions and it seemed to pay off. There were a few of our rivals and some other bikes here for this test and I am glad there were some other bikes out there because the track was not in great condition initially. In the wet, on an already greasy track, it was not the best.
“On day two all the bikes going round got rid of the car tyre rubber and the track is cleaning up nicely. It has been a productive day. We tried a long list of things on the bike and we got through everything just as the circuit closed. That was down to good organisation from my guys and we managed to make it count. We did a lot of testing but that's what we are here for.”