SYKES 4TH ON BRANDS BSB GRID
Tom Sykes and Atsushi Watanabe used today's additional free
practice time at the rescheduled Brands Hatch GP round, to
work on fine tuning their Rizla Suzukis giving them a competitive
set-up ahead of tomorrow's Bennetts British Superbike Championship
double header.
Soaring temperatures at the 2.3 mile Kent circuit allowed
Rizla Suzuki's racers to make the most of the two 30-minute
free practice sessions. Sykes finished in fifth place, steadily
working through changes on both his Rizla Suzuki race bikes.
Watanabe came home in 18th on his return to the challenging
track.
Round one, at the Brands Hatch GP circuit, which was originally
scheduled for Sunday April 6th will take place tomorrow on
Sunday May 11th.
The grid was set from the positions achieved at that event,
however both Rizla Suzuki riders have moved up one position
on the grid due to the injured Karl Harris withdrawing from
the event, so Sykes will start from fourth place and Watanabe
will line up in eighth.
Race one will commence at 1315 with race two at 1620.
Tom Sykes:
"We worked on different settings on both my Rizla Suzukis
during free practice one, and then married the best bits from
each bike into one for the second session. Overall I'm pleased
with the outcome. My Rizla Suzuki technicians have some changes
to make before warm-up tomorrow which will improve my race
set-up even further. Brands Hatch is a tough circuit and these
changes will allow me to push the front end as hard as I need
to here."
Atsushi Watanabe:
"I know Brands Hatch now, I need to fine-tune my Rizla
Suzuki and fine-tune Atsu. The high temperatures have made
it more difficult to find grip but my Rizla Suzuki technicians
have some changes for warm-up tomorrow. I'm looking forward
to racing here at last - it will be a big challenge."
Jack Valentine - Rizla Suzuki Team Manager:
"We've had two productive sessions on track today.
We have already visited Brands Hatch this year so we have
our settings from that event. We also found a good set-up
at Oulton Park; we've put these together for Tom and with
these race settings I feel very positive for tomorrow. We
have a few very small changes to make tonight which we will
run in morning warm-up.
"Atsu also worked on both his machines today. At the
moment he needs a little more work on set-up, however his
Rizla Suzuki technicians have a direction to go in so we will
see an improvement in warm-up."
Grid positions:
1: Shane Byrne (Ducati) 1:25.832
2: Cal Crutchlow (Honda) 1:26.155
3: Leon Haslam (Honda) 1:26.552
4: Tom Sykes (Rizla Suzuki) 1:26.641
5: Leon Camier (Ducati) 1:26.833
6: Simon Andrews (Yamaha) 1:26.926
7: Michael Rutter (Ducati) 1:26.974
8: Atsushi Watanabe (Rizla Suzuki) 1:27.893
9: Michael Laverty (Suzuki) 1:27.937
10: Billy McConnell (Kawasaki) 1:28.206
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