HUDDERSFIELD race ace Tom Sykes will be grabbing the attention of World Superbike bosses once again after earning another Superbike wild card entry to compete on the world stage.
The popular 22-year-old, from Fenay Bridge, who certainly ruffled a few feathers on his maiden World Superbike debut at Brands Hatch, Kent, has promised to make his mark at the Donington Park round of the Championship, on September 7, which will see Australian star Troy Bayliss race in Britain for the last time.
Rizla Suzuki rider Sykes is among five wild-card riders taking part at the Leicestershire circuit which will see former British champion Bayliss make a bid to move closer to a third world title during his final season of racing.
Sykes, the form rider in the British Superbike Championship, who has just nailed a hat trick of victories, will be joined as a wild card rider by HM Plant Honda teammates Leon Haslam and Cal Crutchlow, Hydrex Bike Animal Honda’s James Ellison and Gary Johnson, who rides the Robinsons Concrete Honda.
“I’m very excited about this opportunity,” said Sykes, who finished seventh during his previous wild card ride in race two at the Kent circuit.
“I will be carrying on from where I left off at Brands Hatch and hopefully taking it to the next level.
“I want to be racing closer to the sharp end of the pack with more of the big names of the world championship behind me again.”
Sykes, who is currently third in the British Superbike Championship in only his second season since stepping up from Supersport, definitely ruffled a few ‘big name’ feathers in his last World outing in Kent.
He scorched to sixth place on the second row of the grid after his first ever Superpole qualifying session.
And the result was all the more remarkable as Sykes was riding his standard British Suzuki GSX-R1000 race bike, against those of the higher-tuned World machines.
In race one he was forced to retire, after pressuring multiple world champion Max Biaggi, when a stone fired through his radiator, while in race two he was trading places with Troy Corser and Bayliss and was running as high as fourth until eventually finishing a solid seventh.
