Hot Work for Kawasaki Team at San Marino Round

Tom Sykes and Chris Vermeulen took turns finishing ahead of each other at Misano, with Tom scoring a point in Race One and Chris securing a point in Race Two after some hot and intense track action. Tom was 15th in Race One, then 16th in the second leg, while Chris’s results were a mirror image of Tom’s; 16th in the opener then 15th in the second.

In Race Two, Tom had the additional difficulty of being dropped to last place after colliding with another rider, recovering with real aggression and focus to get up to 16th place. Chris, starting from row six in each race, implemented changes to his set-up for race two, including a change of tire choice for the slightly hotter track temperatures, and found them all a benefit. He improved both his race time and his result and was confident of even more had he started further up the grid.

The team now undergoes two days of testing at Imola on June 29 and 30, in readiness for that round of the series in September—but before that race there is the ninth round of this busy season to contest, at Brno on July 11th.

Tom Sykes: “We tried a big list of things on the bike this weekend but unfortunately we really struggled to get a good set-up in the high track temperatures. We also started on the back foot having not tested here like the majority of teams last week, but that’s no excuse as we just had to try and get down to business. Unfortunately our qualifying position didn’t help us a lot and it was difficult to play catch up in the races, Misano is a hard track to pass. In Race Two I got away to a good start but got caught up in the first corner with a few riders and ended up in the back. My bike suffered in the front due to a clash with another rider but I fought back to 16th from last.”

Chris Vermeulen: “It’s been a challenging weekend and we were disappointed to have missed out Superpole for the first time this year. We made small improvements over the weekend and took a different direction for race two, which was a big improvement. I ran 12 seconds closer to the front than in race one and we went for a softer tire on the rear, which gave much better grip from the start. We still have a lot of work to do on making progress with the bike but I’m looking forward to the two day test this week in Imola, my first test since the start of the season, so we can make further progress and be more competitive in the races.”

Lascorz Second and Closer To The Top

Having qualified fourth Joan expected to maybe have more company in the race, but three attempts by Kenan Sofuoglu to pass Joan finally came to nothing as the Kawasaki rider defended his position well and Sofuoglu ran wide, losing ground each time.

In the championship fight, Laverty has 161 points, Sofuoglu 158 and Lascorz 148, only 13 points from the lead with five rounds left to race. Motocard.com Kawasaki team regular Katsuaki Fujiwara missed this race due to a bout of severe appendicitis.

Fabien Foret (Lorenzini by Leoni Kawasaki) was eighth today, and is now 11th overall.

Joan Lascorz: “We did a lot of work on set-up this weekend and I am quite happy to get second place. There is still quite a battle going on in the championship between Laverty, Sofuoglu and us. We had good pace in the race but just not enough to catch Laverty. Maybe we could have chosen a different tire to use but second is not so bad, and we are now only 13 points behind the lead in the championship.”