INTERVIEW
P90
WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPION TOM SYKES
NEW
GREEN
GREAT
BY GORDON RITCHIE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
T
o say that Tom Sykes is a kind
of under-the-radar World Superbike Champion is an understatement of the stealthiest kind. A
basically shy and introverted person,
his character bursts into life when relaxing with friends and family in private, or under the stimulus of race
wins.
He did not have that latter imperative to worry about when (after some
top rides as a wild card at the British
rounds of World Superbike in 2008
for the Rizla Suzuki team) he got a
great opportunity to ride the new Yamaha R1 alongside eventual World
Superbike Champion Ben Spies. It
did not turn out that well - and insiders didn't expect it to - for the simple fact that Spies was much farther
along the road to potential greatness
than Sykes.
TOM SYKES PROVES
THAT NICE GUYS CAN
FINISH FIRST
Spies was the polished competitor and multi-time AMA Superbike
Champion; Sykes probably the least
famous and least rated of the wave
of British who arrived in the World
Superbike paddock at that stage.
Insiders knew that his British opponents didn't underrate him. However
publicly or otherwise, they knew then
what it would take the world until the
end of 2012 to really find out.
As a rider, Sykes is the real deal.
His Spies/Yamaha experience
forms the American open bracket of
Sykes' career so far and it closes with
the fact that he was the first Kawasaki rider since Scott Russell in 1993 to
win the World Superbike crown.
And he will be back in World Superbike with Kawasaki in 2014. And
the fact they signed him way before
he won the title speaks volumes of
how they feel about him. So it may be
World Superbike for keeps for Sykes,
but he is not without MotoGP ambi-
