Kawasaki Racing Team riders Joan Lascorz and Tom Sykes are in confident mood as their thoughts turn to the second round of the Superbike World Championship, to be held at Imola this coming weekend.

A recent test at Motorland Aragon in Spain boosted both the riders and the team yet again, with Sykes setting a new track best and Lascorz finding what he believes is a missing link in his machine’s overall race set-up.

Sykes enters the second round in third place in the championship points tally, having secured pole and then a fourth and a third place finish at the opening round in Australia last month.

Lascorz is in 20th place overall, having worked hard with an imperfect set up at Phillip Island to score a point in race one, then running right with his team-mate in fourth place for seven laps in race two, after swapping to an alternative set up. He eventually fell from contention but in competing near the front he confirmed the direction of set-up improvements, which he worked on at the Motorland tests Motorland.

Now the challenge facing Joan and Tom is the ‘old school’ parkland circuit of Imola, a venue that Sykes has shown strong form at in the past. Tom led a race for some time on his Kawasaki in 2010, after setting pole position, then finished fourth by only a fraction of a second in race two last year, on the 2011 version of the Ninja ZX-10R.

After the race at Imola there will be a Pirelli tyre test day, which the teams will make use of to continue with the Ninja ZX-10R development programme, put in place by KHI and carried out by the Kawasaki Racing Team around the racetracks and test venues of the world.

Team Pedercini, a Kawasaki Motors Europe supported SBK squad, will field David Salom and SBK rookie Leandro Mercado at Imola and each of these riders has enjoyed a test session at Aragon alongside the factory team recently. Salom’s injured wrist, which held him back in Australia, is almost healed and Mercado is ready to race for the first time after missing most of the winter because of injury.

The Superstock 1000 FIM Cup gets underway this weekend at Imola. This category is only run at European circuits hence it was included at the first SBK round in Australia. Bryan Staring and Jeremy Guarnoni will represent the Pedercini team, with Loris Baz riding for the Kawasaki team MRS set-up.

Joan Lascorz:

“The best thing about the test at Motorland was that was we found a good base for the bike. We confirmed that we took some wrong steps in Australia and we double-checked that in Motorland. I had the opportunity to ride with very balanced bike in that test and I am exciting to go to Imola and see how the bike goes when we get there. The Italian track is fast, with some places where there are some really quick changes of direction. To have a bike set-up with easy handling will be important. Let's see how we manage to bring out the best of the Ninja ZX-10R this weekend. Inside the team I feel the direction is same for everybody and this make the work easier. All the technical staff work with high motivation and for sure KHI is doing a lot of work. I think in myself, in my overall condition, I'm much better than last year and hope that soon I can demonstrate that in the results. This is my second year in SBK but for me last year we only saw 50% of Lascorz, because my Silverstone crash in 2010 affected all of my 2011 season. I hope to show in 2012 what Kawasaki expected from me when they signed me for two years in 2010.”

Tom Sykes:

“We improved the bike at the recent Aragon tests particularly the front end feedback and traction, which I hope we can take onwards to Imola. To be honest I am looking forward to it partly because in the past two seasons I have gone well on the Kawasaki but I am hoping to do even better. That will be my plan for race weekend. We have changed the balance of the bike quite a lot in the past few months so a big part of me is thinking that we should be a bit better even at the start of practice. I am confident that it will work out from the start but there is always a chance that we will have an extra bit of set-up work to do. I am very much looking forward to Imola, based on the results we had in Australia and in recent tests at Aragon.”

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