French youngster Baz joins podium elite after five rounds

Nineteen-year-old Loris Baz could not have had any idea he would get the chance to ride a factory machine in SBK racing in 2012, having started out on a Superstock 1000 Kawasaki in the MRS team. Riding as a replacement for the seriously injured Joan Lascorz, Baz took to the big Ninja right away, but after a recent test at Motorland Aragon he is clearly a force to be reckoned with for riders with much more experience.

He has now scored three top eight places so far but it was his podium finish of third in the first race at the previous round in Brno that really grabbed the attention. It certainly made an impression on Baz! On the stage at the paddock show press conference Loris stated, "I can't believe I am here on the podium in race one. I could not dream of being on the podium when I started in Superbike just a few races ago. I started well and just tried to stay there with the other riders."

Baz explained that part of the reason he has been able to make such a good impression straight away is the hard work put in behind the scenes in a team that tests as much as any other in contemporary SBK terms. "We have been working very well in Kawasaki, all the mechanics and so on, and we never go in the wrong way. Because I am tall we had to make some changes to the geometry of the bike since I started riding it, but it really feels like I have been riding this bike for a year or more."

Race two was not quite the dizzying height of race one for Baz at Brno, but it was still equal to his two previous best finishes of the year - eighth - and put him into the overall top 16 after only ten individual races when most of his rivals have had 17 races so far. "In race two at Brno I got a good start again but it took a bit of time to overtake two riders in front of me. I had a really good feeling with the bike again. I could not make a step to pass some other riders but I am really happy. It is out best race in the full dry conditions and we were only 13 seconds from the front so it was really close."

Baz's talent was precocious even in his first international season. He won the European Superstock 600 championship at the tender age of 15 in 2008, his first season of racing in this competitive support series to SBK.