Kawasaki has announced that their rider line-up will not change in 2012, thus confirming Tom Sykes and Joan Lascorz for the upcoming World Superbike championship.
While Lascorz was anticipated to remain with the Superbike team after Kawasaki decided to get more actively involved in the championship and decided to assign the factory effort to Spanish Provec Motocard.
com run by Guim Roda and drop Paul Bird, so the British rider’s future was slightly less certain, but the negotiations now have confirmed a much rosier 2012 for Sykes.
“I’m very happy to be continuing with Kawasaki and the Ninja ZX-10R in 2012.
I believe the bike has good potential and we saw some of that come through in 2011 with a race win in Germany and Superpole at Misano.
These are the kind of results I am looking to achieve in the coming season on a regular basis and I really believe we can do this.
I have a lot of confidence in Kawasaki and the team around me, so if we can improve a couple of points with the set-up of the bike on the track which I feel are restricting performance this would be a big step forward for us in the final results.
I am looking forward to re-starting our test programme again very soon, ” said Sykes.
“We are very happy to run with Tom in 2012,” said Guim Roda.
“Kawasaki always tries to keep the people it has in place and Tom has been making a good job in the last two years with Kawasaki.
He has the potential to go fast, as he has shown in 2011, and now we have to repeat that for full race distance at each round.
He is young and determined, which are good combinations for a fast rider.
I’m sure working closer with Marcel, his new crew chief, and taking part in all the tests we have planned means he will take one step more and he will be able to fight for the podium places at every race.
Let’s see what he can show us all next year.
”Joan Lascroz finished 11th in the overall standings in 2011 which was his debut season in World Superbikes, while Sykes this year took his first Superbike win at soaking wet Nurburgring and a Superpole at Misano and completed the season in 13th.
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