Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) enters the Monza race weekend looking for more podium success and at this round he will have a new team-mate in Spaniard Sergio Gadea.

This weekend Sergio, a multiple 125cc Grand Prix winner and a podium finisher in that class as recently as 2011, is replacing injured rider Joan Lascorz who continues his recuperation in hospital in Spain.

Sykes is a big fan of Monza, a circuit with many high-speed sections and a few areas of heavy braking into tight and then ever faster chicanes, culminating in the blast through the Variante Ascari towards the unique Parabolica final turn. Sykes and his team feel that Monza should be a great venue for man and machine, as Tom goes for his first win of 2012, and his second career win for Kawasaki.

Tom has won Superpole at all three races of the 2012 season so far and at Monza a good starting place is particularly beneficial as the entire pack has to negotiate the first few chicanes at high speed and in close proximity.

For Sergio racing a Superbike in this category will be a new experience. He has never raced at Monza before but it is may be fortunate that although Monza is unique in its high-speed nature, the layout of the track is relatively simple.

Pedercini Team riders David Salom and Leandro Mercado will be fighting it out at Monza again on their Ninja ZX-10R race bikes, all ready to push on to more points scores to get into double figures and march up the table as the season progresses.

In the other main classes Pedercini Team Kawasaki Superstock 1000 FIM Cup riders Bryan Staring and Jeremy Guarnoni will be out once again, while Loris Baz rides his MRS Ninja ZX-10R, having made a great impact since his arrival back into this class.

For all competitors the potential for poor weather, according to the latest forecasts at least, may be the only thing to spoil what is one of the most enjoyable weekends of the year.

Tom Sykes:

“We have had a fantastic start to the year but I think we also had some bad luck at Assen last time out. Hopefully that is our bad luck for a while now. The good thing from my point of view is that I did not make a mistake, when we were forced to retire we were in the lead of the race and we were competitive again before that. Now I am looking forward to Monza. We have some good circuits coming up and for us Monza we should be OK. We have a good base setting so we need to work around that and not stray too far away from where we need to be. We can still improve the bike in a couple of areas and I am sure we can get there, so we can push on that extra little bit where we need to. The Kawasaki is also strong in the engine performance and I am going to Monza looking to bring back two top finishing places.”

Sergio Gadea:

“This is a great challenge for me and I am very happy about it. I want to thank Kawasaki for the confidence they have had in me this weekend. I have never seen Monza before - only on the Playstation - and I was up until 1:30am this morning playing it. I have also done many laps on the scooter just to be sure of the circuit layout for the first practice session on Friday.”

Tati Mercado:

“I hope to make a step up this weekend because we were able to figure out some things after the Assen race. Getting out of the corners to generate maximum speed down the straights is the most important thing at Monza and that’s what we will focus on. I'm really pleased with the way things are progressing with the package and the team and as it's their home race it also adds something extra to the weekend."

David Salom:

“Monza is a good track for me because our Kawasaki has good speed and it should work well there. I need to score some points at this race. My form is good and my motivation is still high and I intend to just try as hard as I can to reach a good result. I like Monza, also because there are many Pedercini team supporters because it is our team's home race. We've been working hard as a team to continuously improve the bike and I'm confident ahead of the Monza races.”

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