Hot Work for Kawasaki Pairing at San Marino Round

2010-06-27 11:28
Tom Sykes and Chris Vermeulen took turns to finish ahead of each other at Misano, with Tom scoring a point in race one and Chris securing a point in race two after some hot and intense track action.

Tom was 15th in race one, then 16th in the second leg, while Chris’s results were a mirror image of Tom’s; 16th in the opener then 15th in the second.

In race two Tom had the additional difficulty of being dropped to last place after colliding with another rider, recovering with real aggression and focus to get up to 16th place.

Chris, starting from row six in each race, implemented changes to his set-up for race two, including a change of tyre choice for the slightly hotter track temperatures, and found them all a benefit. He improved both his race time and his result and was confident of even more had he started further up the grid.

The team now undergoes two days of testing at Imola on 29 and 30 June, in readiness for that round of the series in September - but before that race there is the ninth round of this busy season to contest, at Brno on July 11th.

Tom Sykes: “We tried a big list of things on the bike this weekend but unfortunately we really struggled to get a good set-up in the high track temperatures. We also started on the back foot having not tested here like the majority of teams last week, but that’s no excuse as we just had to try and get down to business. Unfortunately our qualifying position didn’t help us a lot and it was difficult to play catch up in the races, Misano is a hard track to pass. In race two I got away to a good start but got caught up in the first corner with a few riders and ended up in the back. My bike suffered in the front due to a clash with another rider but I fought back to 16th from last.”

Chris Vermeulen: “It’s been a challenging weekend and we were disappointed to have missed out Superpole for the first time this year. We made small improvements over the weekend and took a different direction for race two, which was a big improvement. I ran 12 seconds closer to the front than in race one and we went for a softer tyre on the rear, which gave much better grip from the start. We still have a lot of work to do on making progress with the bike but I’m looking forward to the two day test this week in Imola, my first test since the start of the season, so we can make further progress and be more competitive in the races.”


Source: Kawasaki Racing Team

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