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Kawasaki Racing Team >> DISSAPOINTMENT FOR THE KAWASAKI RACING DUO AT BRNO

July 16 2010

PRESS AND MEDIA INFORMATION
Saturday 10th July 2010
For immediate release

Brno Race, Round 9

Kawasaki Racing Team rider, Tom Sykes solely added to the points tally in Brno, Czech Republic today where he continued to make his mark on the Kawasaki machine with a credible 11th place in race one but had an unfortunate DNF in race two following a collision with Neukirchner on the first lap.

Ex-MotoGP star, Chris Vermeulen once again suffered from an unfortunate crash beyond his control in race one which took him out of the race in the opening lap. The Australian managed to start race two but due to severe pain in his already damaged right knee, he was unable to complete the race returning to the box on lap two.

With temperatures increasing as the weekend progressed, both Sykes and Vermeulen worked tirelessly to obtain the best possible set-up in the scorching heat. Working predominantly on the balance of the Ninja machine, 24-year-old Sykes improved dramatically from 18th place on Friday to a third row start for the two 20-lap races.

It was once again a challenging qualifying for Vermeulen who unfortunately was not able to move his ZX-10R machine inside row five on the 21 grid line up.

The round nine Hannspree World Superbike victories were taken by Northern Irishman, Jonathan Rea and championship leader, Max Biaggi in front of the 64,000 enthusiastic Czech crowd. Sykes currently holds 16th in the Championship standings with Vermuelen in 19th.

Tom Sykes
“Overall it’s been a disappointing end to the race weekend. I know we started off quite slow but we had a decent Superpole and tried a few things in the morning warm-up and got a bit better balance with the bike. We had an eleventh in race one which was nothing special as we had a few struggles which the boys managed to put right for race two, so big thanks to the their hard work. In race two the bike felt very strong and I got a good start but unfortunately we had a racing incident on the first lap which spoilt the weekend. I was looking forward to a strong ride in race two as many people dropped out so I think we could have had an eight or a ninth here. Obviously there is a few ifs and but I’ll brush myself off and look forward to my home race at Silverstone.”

Chris Vermeulen
“We’ve had a real struggle here in Brno this weekend. We made up a little bit of pace during practices but like everyone else here we had problems with edge grip. Having to start on fifth row continuously makes life difficult and I got caught up in a rider tangle on turn one and was whipped out of the race.  I was optimistic about starting race two but I just could not continue after two laps due to the pain in my damaged right knee. I am obviously extremely disappointed and frustrated with my knee injury which is tirelessly holding me back and where we ended up this weekend. I will have to discuss with both my team and my doctor this week on how best to move forward.”

Paul Risbridger
“We started the weekend with a few set-up problems with the bike but were really pleased how we reacted to issues and improved the bike over the practice and qualifying sessions. Tom in particular put in a great performance during Superpole and really got the best he could out of the bike.  Race one was a good solid finish but we are obviously very disappointed at missing out on what we saw as a definite top ten finish in race two which we lost due to the crash with Max. Chris has continued to struggle this weekend and the accident in race one further damaged his knee so we need to take some medical opinions this week to decide on what is best for Chris before Silverstone race.”

2010 Round nine Results
RACE 1:
J. Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda)
M. Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia Racing)
C. Crutchlow (Yamaha Sterilgarda Team)
S. Guintoli (Team Suzuki Alstare)
R. Xaus (BMW Motorrad Motorsport)
N. Haga (Ducati Xerox Team)
J. Toseland (Yamaha Sterilgarda Team)
L. Haslam (Team Suzuki Alstare)
C. Checa (Althea Racing)
L. Lanzi (DFX Corse)
11. T. Sykes – 5 points
DNF.  C. Vermuelen

RACE 2:
M. Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia Racing)
J. Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda)
M. Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox Team)
J. Toseland (Yamaha Sterilgarda Team)
N. Haga (Ducati Xerox Team)
C. Checa (Althea Racing)
S. Guintoli (Team Suzuki Alstare)
L. Camier (Aprilia Alitalia Racing)
S. Byrne (Althea Racing)
L. Haslam (Team Suzuki Alstare)
DNF. T. Sykes – crashed lap one
DNF. C. Vermeulen – retired from injury

Championship Leaders – Round 9
M. Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia Racing) – 352 points
L. Haslam (Team Suzuki Alstare) – 284 points
J. Rea (Hanspree Ten Kate Honda) – 203 points

Kawasaki Racing Team  is sponsored by Hotbodies Racing and uses our windscreens on all of their bikes. Hotbodies Racing specializes in manufacturing high-performance parts for high-performance sportbikes and is the market leader in Windscreens, Undertails, Huggers, Flush-Mount Signals, MGP and Megaphone Exhausts, and full-race Bodywork.  Hotbodies Racing supports the sport with sponsorships around the world, and encourages dealer and distributor inquiries.  For more information visit: www.hotbodiesracing.com