Tom Sykes has podium placings in mind as he heads to one of his favourite World Superbikes circuits at Assen in Holland this coming weekend.
The former World champion from Huddersfield had a third place and then a heavy highside crash at Motorland Aragon last weekend, from which he has emerged unscathed.
Sykes, now fourth in the championship standings, is focusing all his energy into getting his bike ready for the challenge.
With two third places in 2015, and 22 race victories on his career record, the long-term Kawasaki rider is making continual improvements to his machine set-up after extensive technical rule changes came into force over the winter.
Assen has been the scene of many redesigns and renewals over the decades but it still features the heart and soul of its original format as a roads circuit, albeit with modern levels of run-off and gravel traps.
Sykes said: “I’m looking forward to a track that we have gone well at in previous years.
“The layout is really exciting from a rider’s point of view. Obviously I was not fortunate enough to use the old layout but basically on most of the track, if we exclude the relatively new early section, it has real nice cambered corners and gives you a great feeling with the bike.
“The cambers add to the speed and feel through the corners. There are some real fast-flowing sections.
“We had a big knock last Sunday at Motorland Aragon but, to be honest, I came out of it pretty well. I feel better already.”
Sykes won at Assen in his championship year of 2013, while teammate Jonathan Rea – who leads the standings by 26 points – has five race wins there.
