Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) has picked up a best result of second place at the Australian circuit, taken three pole positions but is still chasing a first win. His pace at the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship Phillip Island Official Test has put him in contention as he searches for that elusive first victory at Phillip Island.

The rider from Huddersfield set the second fastest time in the Official Test and was just 0.022s behind pacesetter Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Official Team) in the combined classification, while he was fastest overall in the first session. He set an impressive pace down to the work of the BMW Motorrad team over the course of the winter.

Sykes said at the WorldSBK Official Test at Phillip Island: “For me a very positive start here in Phillip Island, it’s never been my strong point, but I think it’s just credit to the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team and credit to a successful winter test. We worked very hard on a lot of different parameters on the BMW S1000 RR [and] we kept out of trouble. A lot of guys in winter testing were certainly setting impressive lap times but we were able to focus on the race tyres and try to develop what we have, try and bring our base level to where we need to be. Straight away [today] the bike felt nice, quite easy to ride around Phillip Island so very happy with how today’s gone.”

Sykes will be hoping his pace in testing translates to the track when the Yamaha Finance Australian Round gets underway later this week. On a track where tyre life is key to the race because of the fast turns around the circuit, the focus Sykes and BMW put into race tyres throughout winter testing could be a crucial aspect in Sykes’ aims to get that first Phillip Island win.

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