It was a strong start to the Geico U.S. Round for Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team), who consolidated a strong pace at the technical WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca circuit. The 33-year-old former World Superbike champion was a prominent feature at the pointy end of the timesheets, ending up fourth despite a machine fault in the final three minutes of the day.

Lying seventh in the championship, Sykes has taken three wins at the Laguna Seca circuit and with a fourth on Friday, he keeps up his impeccable record at the Californian venue of always finishing inside the top five after day one. Apart from some struggles in sector one, Sykes was a feature in the top five of all the other sectors, with his BMW S 1000 RR chassis working well around the tight and twisty rollercoaster of Laguna Seca.

Review his first sessions of the weekend, a smiling Sykes said: “I am enjoying riding again and it is always a pleasure to be here, in the US. Again, at a different circuit with low levels of grip and lots of bumps, we were lying second until the last moments, when we missed the slot for new tyres. We are in the top four and tomorrow is another day; we have a lot of information from today and it is a new circuit for the bike and me and as a combination.”

Sykes’ three wins at the circuit have all come with Kawasaki, but he will nevertheless look to become the fourth rider in WorldSBK history to take wins at Laguna Seca with more than one manufacturer: others to achieve this were Troy Corser with Ducati and Aprilia, Anthony Gobert with Ducati and Kawasaki and John Kocinski, with Ducati and Honda.

Continuing, Sykes said: “I was quite surprised, as we were able to do some acceptable lap times; whether they are enough to challenge for the win or not in this moment is another thing. The target is to be on the podium and everyone in the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team knows that I will try my best. We will do this tomorrow and hopefully, we can get a strong result off the back of that!”

Watch Tom Sykes and the rest of the World Superbike field in action with the WorldSBK VideoPass!