Huddersfield racer Tom Sykes heads into the winter break looking forward to the start of the 2016 World Superbike season.
The 2013 world champion and his Kawasaki Racing Team colleague Jonathan Rea, the new 2015 champion, competed their work for the year with a final test at Jerez.
It was the second run at the Circuito de Jerez after two other testing sessions for the their new 2016 WSBK specification Ninja ZX-10R at Aragon’s Motorland track before the winter test ban period, which runs from early December through to the middle of January, started.
Both Sykes and Rea lifted their respective world titles at Jerez, but it is also a special circuit in terms of what it offers from its layout.
With no long straights but many types of corner, and some heavy braking zones thrown in, Jerez is something of an ideal test track.
“Our base after the recent Motorland tests felt really good and we needed to try and improve some things in all areas,” said Sykes.
“In the last run at Motorland we tried a few things and our consistency appears very good.
“ Overall our tests have been positive. It is really nice to see that the direction we have worked along in the past with the Ninja ZX-10R is the same direction our new improvements are also moving in.
“At Jerez we got a lot more information, with a lot more track time available, and really we were trying to get closer to a bike set-up that we need to take to Phillip Island.”
The next outings for the KRT team will be in Europe in late January and will focus more on race performance for the first scheduled round of the championship in Australia, on February 28.
The Superbike World Championship calendar has been released now, and features 14 rounds spread over nine months, from February to late October.
