Salom Replaces Loris Baz For US Round Newsflash, 23 September 2013 Regular KRT Superbike World Championship rider Loris Baz will miss the forthcoming American round of the championship and will be replaced by current WSS star and former regular SBK rider David Salom. After a fast crash in warm-up at the Nürburgring round in early September Baz suffered a suspected broken vertebra. He travelled to the next round in Turkey intent on riding but after final medical checks it was decided he should not race for reasons of safety. Further medical checks after he returned home have confirmed his injury was indeed a result of his crash in Germany therefore, to make sure he is fit and strong enough to compete at his home round in early October, Loris will miss the long trip to America and instead concentrate on his full recovery. Salom, who last raced a superbike in 2012 in the privateer Kawasaki Team Pedercini squad, now gets the chance to sample the official 2013 KRT Ninja ZX-10R, the same specification of machine which has taken Tom Sykes to the top of the championship table. Salom, 28, normally rides a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R in the Supersport World Championship and will return to his regular Intermoto team at the following round in France. David Salom: “I am very happy that the decision was made to allow me to ride the official Superbike at Laguna Seca. This is a new opportunity for me and for sure it will be difficult. The track is new to me and this machine is not the same as the one I rode last year. So I have a lot of learning to do, even though this is a great opportunity for me.” KRT Team Manager Guim Roda: “Loris should be OK to ride at Magny-Cours because he will have had a few weeks of recovery from his vertebra injury. We had expected he would ride in Turkey so we had no time to make a replacement for him there. However, because Loris’s recovery is so important we have considered it best to keep him at home again, just to ensure that he comes back 100% fit and ready to race at his home round. He knows that track well and can help Tom in his end of season push for the title. We have asked David Salom to ride the official KRT Ninja ZX-10R in America alongside Tom and he has accepted the chance – and the challenge. We know him well as together we were second in the Supersport World Championship in 2011. We are well aware of his value as a rider. It will also be a help to him to grow, to let him go back to his regular ride on the Ninja ZX-6R in Supersport sharp and operating at a high level. It will not be an easy challenge for him in America – a new bike, a new track to learn – and the best riders of modified streetbike machines in the world to compete against. We will give him all the tools and support we can. There will be at least a couple of other substitute riders in different teams at this round, so our aim for David is to try and beat them.”