Brno The Go For Kawasaki Men One of the most popular and naturally sculpted circuits on the Superbike World Championship trail beckons Tom Sykes, Joan Lascorz and Chris Vermeulen this coming weekend – Brno in the Czech Republic. The 5.403km circuit, which superseded the old closed road track that originally made the name Brno famous, has been a favourite of almost all riders in the Superbike class since it first appeared on the calendar. A mix of up and downhill sections, fast chicanes and big radius hairpins, Brno is also incredibly wide compared to most other circuits, allowing passing opportunities in several places, but with the overtaken rider usually having enough track left to make a counter attack at the exit. Tom Sykes, currently 13th in the championship rankings on his Kawasaki Racing Team Superbike Ninja ZX-10R, is a real fan of the Brno layout and after making progress in recent races and a post race test at Motorland Aragon he is more than ready to go to work again. Finishes inside the top five places are what Tom is working towards and even expecting at every single meeting from now on. For Joan Lascorz, in his first year of WSBK competition, there have been some highs and lows, but his direction of movement is very definitely upwards of late. Having scored two fifth places (at Donington and Motorland) he has already shown he can hold his own in arguably the toughest season in the modern era of the WSBK series. Joan is now only one place behind Tom in the rankings, after seven rounds. Chris Vermeulen is another rider who holds Brno in high regard. The Aussie, frequently luckless with injuries and extended recovery periods recently, is improving his physical condition all the time. For him anything better then tenth will be a season best. Like his team-mates he has not had the chance to do even a single lap of Brno on the new 2011 machine, so expects a busy time in practice and qualifying. A test session at Motorland Aragon after the previous round found improvements in the areas of rear suspension and chassis geometry. Advances in the general set-up and balance allowed the team to make successful long runs on the softer race tyres and still find good results, opening up more options to the riders in real race conditions. In the Kawasaki Pedercini Team Roby Rolfo and Mark Aitchison have been fighting for their points while riding their ZX-10Rs. Rolfo has been scoring the more consistent points of the two, but Aitchison has already been inside the top ten, at the Assen round. Currently Roby is 17th ranked, Aitchison 20th and on the same points score as Vermeulen. Tom Sykes: “I am very excited and looking forward to racing at Brno. It has a great layout. It is one of the best circuits we go to and I’m very hopeful that the new ZX-10R will work well. I have a strong, positive mindset and on the back of our recent results and latest tests at Aragon, hopefully we can stay nearer the front. I am looking for top five or six all weekend, I would be quite happy with that. The fact is that last time out we were more consistent in our pace and that is my aim again. If anything we can up our game even more in the races, and I am just hoping we can maximize things when using a slightly softer tyre. The plan is to be able to have at least the option of the softer or harder tyres for the races themselves.” Joan Lascorz: “The feeling in Motorland was so good, especially when I did not get to test too much on that track before race weekend. I hope Brno will give me a good feeling from the beginning. Anyway, it will be new track with our new bike, like every race of this year, so let’s see what happens. Our post-race Motorland test was good and we tried out some new ideas we could not test in the races, and we have little more information to work on. Considering all the things that happened around me last year, and beginning of this year, we can say our job is not so bad so far. Of course my idea when I started in Superbikes was to stay closer to the top and fight for top five places more often, but I’m sure Kawasaki is working well and I’m making steps in a good direction. Let’s see what happens in the next races.” Chris Vermeulen: “Brno is a nice circuit, one of the best we go to, with some ups and downs, blind corners and it’s just a really enjoyable track to race on. My elbow is a bit inflamed but the good news is that it shows up as no damage on the scans. Given what you have to do on the bike it is quite hard on that part of the arm, but when I support it with tape it helps the muscle work better. The new bike should work well at Brno and one of the Kawasaki’s strongest points is the engine power. That can help going back up the hills at Brno. There are lots of chicanes there, but they are fast so you do not just go in and stop/start. You can pass in them, you can carry a lot of speed through them and overall Brno is a fun track.” More, from another press release issued by Kawasaki: Parkes And Salom Search For More Silverware Broc Parkes and David Salom sit second and third in the Supersport World Championship rankings at the halfway point of the year as they now approach the Brno round looking for more podium scores. Parkes was unfortunate to fall while leading in the last round at Motorland Aragon but he is still ranked second overall in the championship and took his first Kawasaki mounted victory at Misano just less than a month ago. After Salom scored his first ever WSS podium at Motorland he pulled himself up to third place overall, only 14 points behind Broc. His recent success, allied to the pole position he scored at PI, have proven to David he can run at the sharp end now that he is in possession of an officially-supported Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R. For both Kawasaki riders Brno will offer plenty of opportunities but also lots of competition, as almost 30 regular riders will be hoping for a place on the Brno grid. Part of the regular championship line up, the Lorenzini By Leoni Kawasaki team will be hoping for another weekend like Aragon for Massimo Roccoli, who moved into eighth place with a great fourth place finish Spain. His team-mate Vittorio Iannuzzo is looking for the top ten finishes he had in the first two rounds to move him up from 15th place. For the Supersport class, which will have only 12 rounds in 2011, Brno marks the start of the second half of the season. Broc Parkes: “I’m really looking forward to Brno it has always been a good track for me and I really enjoy it. I was quite disappointed after Aragon but when I started to think about losing some points there I realized there is still along way to go in the championship and it is still wide open. I guess it is better to have crashed while battling for the win than to crash out of tenth position. So we are in a good situation still. This has been one of the toughest championships in WSS. There used to be just a few top guys in the past three years, but there are quite a few again and a lot more good bikes on the grid. I cannot say enough good things about our team, I have never had a team that works like this and I think this makes the big difference to the big picture. It’s both the way they work and how much they work. They seem to make my job a lot easier because they let me focus on my job. Everything is organized around you all the time.” David Salom: “Aragon last time was a very good weekend and it gave me my first podium, so my confidence is high. It was great to take that podium in my home country and it was a good job from the team. I think it proved to us that we really can fight for the championship. Brno is a nice track for my riding style and there are no really hard braking areas, just lots of fast corners and chicanes. For our bike, this is a good track. In our post Aragon tests we tried out some new suspension parts and I was happy for this test because I think the new parts are already an improvement. We also worked on our electronics, so I hope we can see the results of all that in Brno.” More, from a press release issued by Paul Bird Motorsport: World Superbike Championship – Round 8 – Brno, Czech Republic – Sunday 10th July 2011 PBM Look To Continue Form At Brno The Kawasaki Superbike Racing Team heads for the Czech Republic this forthcoming weekend aiming to replicate their strong showing at Aragon last month when round eight of the World Superbike Championship takes place at Brno. Last time out aboard the Paul Bird Motorsport Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10Rs at the Spanish track, Joan Lascorz celebrated the first race meeting at his home circuit with a seventh and a fifth place, his best combined points score of the season so far, whereas British rider Tom Sykes, who started from fifth place on the grid, took fifth position in race one before sliding off in the second race. Aussie Chris Vermeulen also scored 12th in race one before battling to 14th and more important points in race two. With all three riders now fit, Yorkshireman Sykes is best placed in 13th in the series, the two races will provide a stern test for the team once again as they go in search of their first podiums of the season. Sykes only managed an 11th place finish at the corresponding World Superbike race last year although Lascorz came within a tenth of a second of winning the World Supersport race the same day. Paul Bird, Team Owner: “Hopefully we have turned the corner with a solid performance at Aragon and we can now continue this forward for the rest of the season. We showed we had good pace earlier in the season but things didn’t work out for us for a few rounds but I feel we have made good progress recently. Both Tom and Joan are now pushing each other and I feel a podium is just around the corner and with another home race at Silverstone coming up after this round, we need to be challenging at the front from now on.”