Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/452615
IN THE WIND P34 SYKES TALKS NEW CHALLENGER O f all the possible rivalries in World Superbike in 2015, the most eagerly anticipated is the one between 2013 World Champion Tom Sykes and his new Kawasaki teammate Jonathan Rea. Last year some expected Loris Baz to make the breakthrough to championship challenger, but de- spite scoring well in many races he did not win a race all year. Rea—almost a veteran in World Su- perbike terms—had his best year ever and won four races, finishing third in the championship. Sykes confirmed that he feels there will be an even greater challenge from the other side of the garage than before. "I have known Jonathan [Rea] for quite a while and raced against him in the Brit- ish Championship," said Sykes. "I have spoken to him more in a couple of days testing than I did with Loris [Baz] throughout our time at Kawasaki. With Loris there was a little bit of a clash of personalities. I am more of a down-to-earth-kind of guy. I would like to think my head is a bit more screwed on. For Kawasaki and the whole of the Provec team it is exciting. It has given us new possibilities to fight harder for the manufacturers' title and team title. "For me it is no added pressure. I will only go and do my own thing. I am lucky to have a good relationship with Kawasaki, we have a mutual re- spect and together we have worked hard and got the bike to where it is today. I will continue to do that—work on my own problems and the bike prob- lems. It should be a competitive garage, but I think in a good way." Gordon Ritchie Tom Sykes faces a new potential championship challenger in 2015 now that Jonathan Rea is on the same machinery. PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE HAYES, REGAL ROCK COLORADO SPRINGS ARENACROSS A MSOIL Arenacross, featur- ing Ricky Carmichael's Road to Supercross came to Colorado Springs for the third stop of the championship, January 23-24. Jacob Hayes and Kyle Regal claimed the big wins of the Ar- enacross class inside the Broad- moor World Arena. The West- ern Regional Arenacross Lites Championship also kicked off at the Colorado Springs race. The weekend saw A&Y Racing Hon- da's Daniel Herrlein and Motors- port.com KTM's Daniel Blair split wins, with Blair emerging from Colorado as the Western Region- al points leader. Both nights in Colorado were packed with close racing, and each night a tiebreaker was re- quired to determine the overall winner in the premier class. After running second in most of the first main event on Friday night, Husqvarna TiLUBE's Gavin Faith put a move on Babbitt's Ka- wasaki's Jacob Hayes on the final lap and made an aggressive pass for the win. Hayes held on for second ahead of Babbitt's Kawa- saki's Matt Goerke who rounded out the top-three. In Friday's second main, Hayes got a descent start, and steadily battled his way forward to move from fourth to first. Behind him, Goerke and Faith went bar-to-bar for second place, but Faith had to settle for third as Goerke took the point. Hayes' 2-1 finish and Faith's 1-3 score, plus an extra cham- pionship point for winning the RMATV/MC Head 2 Head Chal-