Recent Donington double winner Tom Sykes and his talented KRT team-mate Loris Baz take their official Ninja ZX-10Rs to Portimao for round six of the championship this weekend in confident mood.

Sykes is eager to keep up his winning momentum, having won half of the last six individual races, including a brilliant double at his home venue of Donington last time out.

Having now visited a variety of circuits on his KRT Ninja ZX-10R Sykes has proved competitive at all of them, which gives rider and team a boost in their desire to continue the form that has put Tom only four points behind the championship leader with a third of the racing season completed.

Last year at Portimao Sykes won the first race of the day on his official KRT machine, having started from pole position. In 2013 Sykes and his entire Kawasaki crew aim to build towards ultimate raceday performance from the very first free practice session on Friday morning.

Baz is a real fan of the Portimao circuit and this will be his second visit there on an official Kawasaki, having raced to two seventh places in Portugal last year. Already a podium finisher in 2013, and proven SBK race winner in 2012, Baz is out to post consistent top five finishes as the 20-year-old French rider continues to build experience at a seriously fast pace. Sitting sixth in the championship after Donington, Loris has scored a 2013 podium finish already, in race two at Assen.

Portimao is a remarkably intense and undulating challenge for any Superbike rider and team to face, with so many uphill and downhill sections and a bewildering variety of corners to negotiate along its 4.592km length.

A stunning modernist venue in all ways, the ‘Autodromo do Algarve’ it is a treat for the spectators who get to see the riders for so much of the full lap, wherever they choose to watch from. It is also a popular testing circuit, although not one used by the KRT squad during the pre-season build up.

Federico Sandi (Kawasaki Team Pedercini) and his team-mate Alex Lundh will be back in action on their Ninja ZX-10Rs at Portimao with Lundh continuing his recovery from a relatively recent collarbone fracture.

The Superstock 1000 FIM Cup and Superstock 600 European Championships return to the SBK paddock at Portimao, after missing a round at Donington. The Kawasaki charge will come from a number of possible fronts in the Superstock 1000 class. The best-placed Ninja ZX-10R rider so far is Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS Kawasaki) who is fourth overall, while the first Kawasaki race winner of the year is Monza victor Lorenzo Savadori (Team Pedercini Kawasaki).


Tom Sykes:

“I think it is safe to say that we have kept our feet on the ground after our first double win at Donington. Race weekends do not get any better than that and we took the maximum in all ways. The bad news is that we can only equal it again now! But the good news is that if we can do it again we will be in a really good situation. Both the Ninja ZX-10R and I have been fast in Portugal recently so I’m honestly really looking forward to it. Expectations will be high of course but I feel we have a good package to keep working forward with. I think Portimao is even more intense than Donington, very physical for the arms. The hills and so on are a bit extreme, almost too much but the beauty is that it is the same for everybody. I am sure we can get the Kawasaki working strongly and we need to keep the momentum going there. Racing is a massive team effort nowadays. A few years ago I thought that a strong rider could always make that last little bit of difference, and of course he still can, but I have learned a bit more since then. I think it is clear to understand that not only do you need to be a good rider you also need every single person involved to be in good working order. Luckily I have a very good blend of people around me and we are all working at a high level.”

Loris Baz:

“I am sure Portimao should be a good race for us. I really like the track and the weather looks good at the moment. We would like to have a full three-day dry race meeting to let us work a little bit more in consistent conditions. I cannot wait to get on the bike on Friday now. Portimao is very intense but I really like it and it has always been a good place for me to ride at. It is up and down and has some fast corners, so it is a lot of fun to ride around. We are a third of the way through the season and I think overall we are where we wanted to be at this stage, maybe a bit more than we wanted. We are fighting for fifth place in the championship and we can fight for that position at nearly every race. I hope we can also be inside the top five in the Portimao races.”

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