Tom Sykes is now within five points of the championship leader as the Superbike World Championship heads to the Miller Motorsports Park round, with Tom once more teamed up with young rider Loris Baz.

Sykes has only been off the podium three times so far this season, has already scored a race win at Monza and is 15.5 points ahead of the third place rider. Sykes has also been almost peerless in Superpole. He has won four of the five Superpole contests in 2012 so far and only narrowly missed out on another at Monza.

The rolling result of the hard work put in on track and behind the scenes by all in the Kawasaki Racing Team set-up has meant that irrespective of the type of circuit Sykes and his Ninja ZX-10R have encountered, good results have generally been secured on raceday and this has built up a large degree of combined confidence for the rest of the season.

Sykes’ previous SBK record at Miller, both as a Kawasaki rider and when riding for another manufacturer in his first SBK season, is something of a mixed bag. He has an MMP best of sixth in race one last year, but both Tom and his squad will be aiming to be in the front-running mix at the popular American circuit.

Once more riding in place of Tom’s injured 2012 team-mate Joan Lascorz, Frenchman Loris Baz will meet the American circuit near Salt Lake City for the first time this weekend, in only his second outing in the factory SBK team.

Baz, still only 19-years-old, finished inside the top ten at the previous Donington round and impressed all with his positive attitude and ability to pick up pace as the weekend went on. He was eighth in race two and is out to score more points at Miller.

The race at MMP takes place on Monday 28th May, not the more traditional Sunday of every other round, as the event is held over the American Memorial Day Holiday weekend. Track action starts on Saturday 26th, Superpole is on Sunday 27th and raceday – for the Superbike class only at this round – is on Monday 28th.

Tom Sykes:

“I am really looking forward to going to Miller because Salt Lake is a beautiful part of the world, so the atmosphere and scene is set for me already. Miller has not been a spectacular venue for me in the past but it has also not been too bad. This year, with the Ninja ZX-10R the way it is, we have come a long way with the bike and I am hoping we can go there and start afresh. I hope we will be able to compete and we have been fairly consistent this year. Now we are only five points off the lead, which is really promising. There is a bit of pressure going into Salt Lake, just to keep the performance up, but the only pressure is from myself. I do not want to let myself down. Last time out Donington was a little bit of a challenge for us so it was good to come away with a pole position and two third places. My main goal is, like always, to get two top four or top five positions and keep those points coming in.”

Loris Baz:

“I do not feel any pressure or have any specific objective for Miller so I will go there just the same as in Donington. I do not know the track there but I do not see that as a very big problem. I will just enjoy it and we will see what happens. If I can do what I did at Donington, scoring points and being less than a second per lap from the first riders, then that would be perfect. I will just be learning the bike and going step-by-step again. Maybe we will try some new things with the bike settings at Miller, simply because I am really tall, so I have to sit quite far back on the bike. Because of that the geometry of the bike changes a little. Nothing big to try because the base setting of the bike is already really good. I have a good feeling with my crew chief Pere Riba and all the mechanics and for a first race together at Donington I think we all worked together very well.”

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