IN
THE
WIND
P20
SYKES LEADS WORLD SUPERBIKE TEST
V
oltcom Crescent Suzuki's Eu-
gene Laverty was fast early
and fast late in his 2014 Suzuki
debut, but in between it was Ka-
wasaki's defending World Cham-
pion Tom Sykes who emerged
from the two-day Phillip Island
World Superbike test as the fast-
est rider overall.
Sykes turned in his quick lap
on Tuesday morning, the Brit lap-
ping at 1:30.239 – a lap that was
just .005 of a second from Car-
los Checa's World Superbike lap
record at the track on the Bass
Straight in Australia.
"I am happy with the results of
these two days of testing at Phil-
lip Island," Sykes said. "In the last
couple of days we have done a
lot of laps to confirm the remain-
ing test items, so to be fastest
and be one of the most consis-
tent riders… I have to be very
happy with that. Phillip Island has
never been our main event, so to
speak, so to be up there already
is very good. I know the condi-
tions have caught a lot of people
out, but I know we can now go
to the race weekend with more
of a clear understanding of what
to do. Now we will turn our focus
more on performance, pure per-
formance, over the race week-
end. I will go away now and have
a couple of days winding down
and relaxing and come back
on Friday morning ready to go
again."
Laverty ended up second –
barely ahead of his rookie team-
mate Alex Lowes. The 23-year-
old Brit, who rode for the first
time at Phillip Island on Monday,
was impressive. He dropped 1.1
seconds from his first session
to lead a lot of the more experi-
enced men of World Superbike.
Lowes will make his World Su-
perbike debut on Sunday at Phil-
lip Island in the season opener.
"The test has been good,"
Lowes said in a team release.
"I'm happy to be in the top-three
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
GOLD
&
GOOSE
Tom Sykes
emerged
with the best
time from the
two-day World
Superbike test
at Phillip Island
on Tuesday. The
season opener
in Australia is
this coming
weekend.
Rookie Alex Lowes
was the revelation
of the test, the
class rookie ending
up third fastest
overall on his
Suzuki.
