Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes finished second on the podium in the first World Superbike race at Assen, but just missed out on a rostrum in the second wet race at the Dutch track, after alterations to the setup of his ZX10-R hindered rather than helped his cause.
But nevertheless Huddersfield’s finest is happy with the points he managed to bag for his team this afternoon, especially in the mixed conditions – and still leads the championship with 108 points.
In the first race of the day Sykes and team-mate Loris Baz were always part of the top four battle, with Sykes chasing early leader and eventual race winner Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli in patchy track conditions until the race was finished five laps early. The Brit finished behind the Frenchman in second.
A ten lap second race was much delayed because of rain as the riders were about to start, with the first attempted running only lasting four laps. Two hours after the scheduled start a fully wet race two put early race leader Sykes in fourth place at the flag.
“Sylvain Guintoli was definitely setting a good pace at the beginning of race one and I tried to get back to him in the early part of the race. I caught a little bit of damp track surface on the brakes and the rear end came around,” said Sykes.
“I had to run off the track but I left myself with a lot of work to do. The Ninja ZX-10R was working well and I know I could have got a lot closer to Sylvain but passing is another thing. I am happy enough with second in that race.
“Race two was held in very greasy conditions and we had made a small alteration to the ZX-10R set-up and it probably wasn’t the best change.
"The good thing is that we are a lot closer than we used to be and I am sure we could have been even closer knowing now what we did not know at the start of the second race. For that reason I am happy and the guys closest to me in the championship had a bit of a bad race, so fourth was not too bad.”
