VOL. 51 ISSUE 44 NOVEMBER 4, 2014 P39
round that irked him badly, and a
small limitation on his bike set-up
that raised its head again.
"We know where we have is-
sues and we know where we can
work on them, but there is only so
much you can do," said Sykes. "If
the championship decider was at
somewhere like Donington then
you know things could be differ-
ent, but it just wasn't enough.
We have had some incidents this
year that have set us back. I am
not taking anything away from
Sylvain and his team because
at the end of the day they have
done the job, but yes, at Assen
it was red flagged, Portimao we
were so strong then we had the
rain and in Magny-Cours had rain
again. The incident in Sepang
when we had such good pace, I
got knocked off in race one and
I could not feel 80 percent of my
Briefly...
first day of timed practice. He made
it to 19th on the grid, his best qualify-
ing result of the year.
The new JR BMW team announced
at the previous round in Magny-
Cours is set to make its first rider call
in readiness for the new season, with
Toni Elias linked to the ride.
The Red Devils Roma team is looking
to hire Leon Haslam as its number-
one rider in 2015, and maybe their
only rider, if Aprilia comes through
with its plan to continue in some
form in World Superbike. Contrary to
many reports, Haslam is not in talks
with Corser's JR BMW team.
Qatar is gearing up to host World
Superbike as the final race of the
calendar for the next five years,
although Dorna's Javier Alonso
confirmed that there are still some
details to tie up before this can be a
final reality. The races will always be
run under floodlights, as this is the
USP of the Qatar facility. The ultimate
plan from the Qatari side is to have
World Superbike on one weekend
and then MotoGP the next, in a form
of 'Speedweek; that used to take
place at Assen in the old days.
Thailand is also 99 percent certain
to join the series in 2015, and it will
most likely be either directly after the
Phillip Island race weekend, or two
weeks after - depending on how ear-
ly the rounds in Europe can kick off.
Chile is still possible, but that would
be near the end of the 2015 season,
if it does happen. Work is ongoing to
get the South American venue ready
in time.
