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INTERVIEW WORLD SUPERBIKE RACER TOM SYKES P106 on the correct path now and that's the main thing. We have a lot of time to react and respond so let's keep pushing. Going back to what you said about basically bringing the ZX-10R to life, was it bet- ter for Jonathan Rea that he came to the Kawasaki Rac- ing Team—and the ZX-10R— as a total stranger? In other words, he didn't know the bike like you did. Correct. Of course, for him he didn't know the advan- tages that we had. You know Jonathan is a bit taller and just from my opinion, and it's only my opinion, maybe I'm wrong or maybe I'm right, honestly speaking, I think his timing couldn't have been better, you know? The bike really suited a very flowing style and every- body who has seen Jonathan over the years knows he has a very flowing style. He's quite easy on the gas and etcetera. He got on the bike and the two of them were in harmony. We had a lot of work to do. Through a lot of trial and error, and we sacrificed some of the races because we were still testing, we lost a lot of ground. It was a big shame, but that's part of racing and we can try and make up for that lost ground. I don't mean this in a bad way, but when Jona- than came into the team and started to excel almost immediately, did you catch yourself thinking, "Hey, this is my bike and my team!" Do you know what I mean? (Laughter) For sure there's always some kind of personal pride because finally people who recognized myself, and some key members of the team had worked hard. And with the help from Kawasaki, in four years we came from nowhere to challenge for the title three consecutive years. So, yeah, I do feel very proud to be part of that and I do feel lucky that I'm able to give that feedback to develop the bike. Fi- nally, at the end of the day, when Jonathan was winning races, fair play to him. The Kawasaki badge on my sleeve, that's good. That's what we go racing for. You know it was weird because at least I knew the machine was capable of winning. It just meant that we had to get things to work for my style. How would you describe your style, Tom? In the past I would say that I "ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN AND THAT'S WHY I'M HAPPY KNOWING THAT HOPEFULLY WE'VE TURNED THIS CORNER. NOW WE NEED TO PUSH ON." could get it into the corners fast, turn and get out of the corners fast. That's worked good in the past, but you've also seen it work against me at some circuits and in some weather conditions. At the end of the day I'm very confident in my ability and I'm maybe even more confident with the guys working for me. All my mechanics, even my tire man, everybody. I've got a great team and even with the terrible start to the season, those guys were 110 percent behind me. On a bad day when all the mechanics and everybody are still patting me on the back and still believing in me,

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