Tom Sykes isn’t concerned with having to start fourth on the grid for tomorrow’s World Superbike races at Phillip Island despite failing to maintain his stunning Superpole record of 2012. The Briton took nine pole positions last season but having only turned them into four wins, is mindful that Sunday is the day to be focusing on.
“The new look Superpole rules have not suited us because we could have had a nice front row start. We are on row two but obviously we have done a good job to get so close, so fast, after having been forced to skip two days testing and then riding injured. I learned last year that qualifying is qualifying and racing is another story, so I am a decent spot for tomorrow’s races. It will be two long races, in hot conditions from what I have heard, so let’s see. We have a bit of thinking to do tonight to decide in exactly which direction we will go but I do not feel we are in a bad situation at all. Let us see how tomorrow goes.”
Kawasaki teammate Loris Baz will start eleventh and complained that his final set of qualifying tyres had gone off before the end of his hot lap, preventing him from reaching Superpole 3.
“This was one of our best weekends of work in practice and qualifying and it had been going well until the last corners when I had a qualifying tyre in Superpole 2. The second qualifier we had did not work as well as the first one we used and by the time I got to the last corners it had given its best, so I could not improve my time to go into the final part of Superpole. We are good for the race I think, we have done a lot of work and think we are in good shape for the race, which is the main thing. My best lap in Superpole 2 was actually done on a race tyre so I am happy about that.”
