Sykes hopeful ‘fundamental changes’ pay off

After his frustrating home round at Donington Park, Tom Sykes is aiming to fight back to winning ways on World Superbike’s return to the Czech Republic at Brno.

The 2013 World Superbike champion secured the outright pole position record last month at his home track, surpassing Troy Corser with his 44th career pole, but his race pace with the Kawasaki ZX-10RR failed to deliver his usual dominance at Donington Park with an offering of third place in race one and sixth place in race two.

Sykes hopeful ‘fundamental changes’ pay off

After his frustrating home round at Donington Park, Tom Sykes is aiming to fight back to winning ways on World Superbike’s return to the Czech Republic at Brno.

The 2013 World Superbike champion secured the outright pole position record last month at his home track, surpassing Troy Corser with his 44th career pole, but his race pace with the Kawasaki ZX-10RR failed to deliver his usual dominance at Donington Park with an offering of third place in race one and sixth place in race two.

Having repeated his sentiment that the current Kawasaki bike is not suited to his riding style, Sykes is eager to kick-on at Brno and feels key set-up alterations trialled at the recent in-season test at the Czech track will pave the back to the front.

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“We tested at Brno recently and I am going there highly motivated,” Sykes said. “We had a pretty decent test and I am looking forward to building on the back of that.

“We made some fundamental changes to the bike and we had a bit of a testing programme to get through. I am ready for it now. We had a decent package for the test so we will use those ideas for our set-up.

“Brno is a circuit that I always enjoy riding at. It is a definitely flowing track and you spend a lot of time on the side of the tyre. The only thing I noticed is that the circuit is quite bumpy now, but we will work with that.”

Brno, which last hosted the series back in 2012, represents a happy hunting ground for the British rider having taken pole position and a pair of second places six years ago.

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