The best weekend so far Kawasaki Racing Team rider Tom Sykes gave him a fifth and a seventh place finish on his Ninja ZX-10R, while rookie Ian Lowry added to the positives by going 12th in race one.

Tom made great use of his seventh place grid position, making strong starts in each race and riding at a consistently high pace throughout. His two strong finishes lifted him to 15th in the overall rankings, with a total of 70 points. Tom equalled his best individual race finish of fifth today, but this was arguably an even more impressive finish than his top five in Monza in May.

Lowry had a great race one for a rookie rider, and finished with four points. He fell in race two but only after a set-up change intended to make his lap times even more competitive.

Great weather conditions assisted all the riders at this modern classic circuit in the Eifel Mountains of Germany, delivering a level playing field for all comers in practice and on raceday.

Tom is now only six points from 14th place, and 15 points from 13th overall, giving him a new target to aim for in the two remaining races of the year.


Tom Sykes:

“We’ve had quite a strong performance here at the Nürburgring this weekend, from both the Team and myself, and I’m very happy with how it’s all gone. I just wished we could have hang in there a bit more in race two but overall I can’t complain, as it’s our best results for the year. We came here with a good base package and worked well with what we knew was our setting goal so this meant we didn’t need to make big changes, just a few adjustments which are ultimately much easier on a rider. I was able to just focus on fine-tuning the bike and the best tyre combinations to get my ultimate setting. Overall it’s been a massive effort from the team and Kawasaki and although I’d like to thank every individual, I have to give additional thanks to Johnny my crew chief, and Javier from Showa for giving me the best package this weekend, on which I was able to show well in the races and come away with some strong results for Kawasaki.”

Ian Lowry:

“I was really excited to have been asked to ride this weekend for the official Kawasaki Racing Team and although I obviously haven’t ridden around the Nürburgring before, or spent much time on the bike, I felt that I started the weekend in pretty good shape. I was really pleased to have finished 12th in race one and get some points for the team but I’m just a bit disappointed that I didn’t get to improve my time and performance in race two, having had a slide off after we took the wrong settings direction. Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed my first outing at the World Superbikes with the Kawasaki Racing Team and I hope that I get another opportunity to race with them again.”