Sykes Salvages Eighth For MCE Ducati
The Lake District-based MCE Ducati team endured a challenging day at Brands Hatch today with Tom Sykes’ eighth place the only result they had to show for their efforts in the two Bennetts British Superbike Championship races which comprised round five of the series.
Results, and lap times, from the previous day meant that double BSB champion Josh Brookes and former World Superbike Champion Sykes started the opening 20-lap race around the 2.43-mile venue in eighth and 16th place respectively and although Josh dropped back one place on the opening lap, Tom overhauled four of his fellow competitors.
With hot conditions once more, several riders fell victim in the early laps and Brookes was unfortunately one of them, coming to grief at Stirling’s on just the sixth lap.
That left Sykes as the sole PBM teamster in the field and, up into the top ten as early as lap three, he found himself locked in battle all race with fellow former World Champion Danny Kent.
The duo both moved forward as the race wore on, but Tom always had the edge and took a solid eighth place for his second-best result of the season so far aboard Paul Bird’s factory-supported and MCE Insurance-backed Ducati Panigale V4R.
Unfortunately, that was as good as the day got with Tom unable to take his place on the grid for the final race of the weekend when a technical problem ruled him out before the start. Brookes started from seventh and the third row, but his race was only half a lap old when he felt contact from another rider and crashed out at Westfield.
Josh Brookes: "Today has clearly been disappointing and whilst I thought yesterday was tough, today has topped that. In the first race, I felt like I was riding well and hanging with the front group so I was waiting to see how the longer race would affect people but, sadly, I never got far as the front went with no warning. I’ve never crashed there before and never even had any moments so I can only assume I was going too quick, carrying too much lean angle or too much front brake.
Something caused it. In the second race, there was a lot of jostling in the first few corners and a bit of desperation by some riders which was a bit strange as it was going to be another long race. It’s been a damaging day so all we can do is dust ourselves down, quite literally, and look ahead to the next round.”
Tom Sykes: “It has been a difficult weekend for us, and it was a frustrating end to the weekend when we couldn’t take our place on the grid for the final race. We had a technical issue in the first race today which we thought was sorted as all the various settings were checked but it reappeared on the sighting lap of the final race, and we couldn’t take part. It’s such a shame as we had made some progress in the opening race, and we couldn’t put into effect the changes we had planned so that was doubly disappointing. But we’ll come back stronger and hopefully have some better fortune next time out.”
Johnny Mowatt, Team Manager: “It’s been a tough day at the office and what could go wrong, did go wrong. Tom’s still struggling a bit with the same issues he’s had all year, essentially steering the bike on the throttle, but we need to address them if we’re to move forward and we have a few things in the pipeline for the next round. Tom had a technical issue on the sighting lap of the last race, so we had to pull the bike off the grid on safety grounds whilst Josh had two uncharacteristic crashes, the first when he lost the front and the second when he felt he’d been nudged by another rider. There is only one way we can go from this weekend so roll on Thruxton.”
Bennetts British Superbike Championship race two (20 laps)
1 Tarran Mackenzie (Yamaha)
2 Jason O’Halloran (Yamaha)
3 Tommy Bridewell (Ducati)
4 Bradley Ray (Yamaha)
5 Leon Haslam (Kawasaki)
6 Rory Skinner (Kawasaki)
8 Tom Sykes (MCE Ducati)
DNF Josh Brookes (MCE Ducati)
Bennetts British Superbike Championship race three (20 laps)
1 Tarran Mackenzie (Yamaha)
2 Jason O’Halloran (Yamaha)
3 Glenn Irwin (Honda)
4 Bradley Ray (Yamaha)
5 Tommy Bridewell (Ducati)
6 Leon Haslam (Kawasaki)
DNF Josh Brookes (MCE Ducati)
DNS Tom Sykes (MCE Ducati)
Championship Standings (after five rounds)
1 O’Halloran 265pts
2 Ray 255
3 Jackson 187
4 Skinner 174
5 Ryde 170
6 Irwin 156
11 Brookes 87
14 Sykes 58
Images courtesy of Double Red: Josh Brookes (25) and Tom Sykes (66)
