HUDDERSFIELD Racer Tom Sykes goes to Brno this weekend looking to improve his World Superbike Championship standing.
Placed 13th in the series, Sykes and the Kawasaki Superbike Racing Team heads for the Czech Republic aiming to replicate their strong showing at Aragon last month in round eight of the championship.
Last time out Sykes, who started from fifth place on the grid, took fifth position in race one before sliding off in the second race aboard the Paul Bird Motorsport Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10Rs at the Spanish track.
Teammate Joan Lascorz celebrated the first race meeting at his home circuit with a seventh and a fifth place, his best combined points score of the season so far, and fit-again Australian Chris Vermeulen finished 12th in race one before battling to 14th and more important points in race two.
Sykes only managed an 11th-place finish at the corresponding World Superbike meeting last year, although Lascorz came within a tenth of a second of winning the World Supersport race the same day.
Team Owner Paul Bird said: “Hopefully we have turned the corner with a solid performance at Aragon and we can now continue this forward for the rest of the season.
“We showed we had good pace earlier in the season but things didn’t work out for us for a few rounds but I feel we have made good progress recently.
“Both Tom and Joan are now pushing each other and I feel a podium is just around the corner and with another home race at Silverstone coming up after this round, we need to be challenging at the front from now on.”
The opening race gets underway at noon on Sunday with race two at 3.30.
