The full Kawasaki Racing Team rider line up will be heading to a favourite testing venue – Jerez de la Frontera – in Spain for three days of track action, starting on Monday 31 March.

After such a long break since the first round of the season at Phillip Island on February 23, SBK riders Tom Sykes and Loris Baz, plus SBK Evo rider David Salom, are all understandably keen to get back onto the racetrack in preparation for the second round, which takes place at Motorland Aragon on 13 April.

Loris Baz will arrive in Spain buoyed by the results of the first round of the championship, with the young Frenchman the highest ranked Ninja ZX-10R rider so far; an impressive second in the points after finishing fifth and second at the first round.

Reigning world champion Sykes scored a podium in race two in Australia to go sixth in the current rankings. He is now looking to confirm his best 2014 base set-up at Jerez and evaluate some development parts for the official Ninja ZX-10R to improve performance once again.

Spanish rider David Salom left the opening round of the championship ninth overall and was the winner of not only the first ever Evo class race, but the second one as well. With the Evo class still such a new initiative for all competitors Salom will work on several aspects of machine set-up and performance at Jerez, to continue the great early season form of man and machine once he gets to round two at Motorland.

With the entire KRT squad having significant experience of testing at Jerez in the recent past real comparisons can be made in ultimate and race long performance next week. As most of their main rivals are also scheduled to test alongside them at Jerez, it will be a busy and intense time for KRT, and another opportunity to improve overall competitiveness in a season when Sykes is defending his world champion status.


Tom Sykes:

“We are heading to Jerez again and it is a circuit that we have a lot of data from, so it is good to go back there to measure progress. I have had a lot of time to think about the first race at Phillip Island and we had some limitations in that one, but we found good improvements in race two. I just wish the second race had been longer, even though we did get a podium finish.”

“We do not have a lot of big updates for the Ninja ZX-10R at Jerez but at this stage we are not looking for those. I feel from our side we can already improve one area of the bike, to allow me to ride more quickly and more consistently. For that reason I am really keen to go there. There are also two items that we need to test but they are not massive things. We just want to clarify how well they work.”

“With three days on track you really get a chance to sit down and work on things because two days often run out too fast. If the weather is good three days gives you time to do a lot. I am very motivated and feel that this break after race one has been good to get a few things cleared up and I am looking forward to starting the rest of the season.”

Loris Baz:

“At the beginning of the Jerez test we will use the bike like it was at Phillip Island to get to know it again and keep our confidence high. The target at Jerez is to leave with a bike that we can take into many of the next races. This season there will not be the chance to test during the year as much as we have in the past. In the first half of the year we will have only one day of testing after the Imola race so it is important to leave this test in Jerez with the best possible feeling with the bike. What we had in PI was very good so we do not need to try and improve everything.”

“The base set-up is working well but we can improve our race pace. I also maybe have to do a bit of work on the qualifying tyre because you cannot start on the third row of the grid if you want to have security in the early part of the races. If you start from there you have to take a lot of risks during the first laps. We have to improve our qualifying laps but that is maybe more me than the bike. I possibly have to improve my lines or my riding style on a qualifying tyre so that may also be something important to try at this test.”

David Salom:

“We had a very good start in Australia but this is a new class and we will have to work hard to keep improving, because our rivals will not stand still either. At Jerez we need to try electronic updates. We are there for three days and we will also try out some new suspension settings, more gearing changes and it should be a hard, but good, three days. I look forward to riding again after the long break since round one.”

Guim Roda, Team Manager:

“The main idea of this test is to take care of some small details on the full Superbikes with Loris and Tom. It is just making adjustments on some new ideas. It will be the combination of some small parts so we can make a confirmation of their real performance. It is also an opportunity to get the riders back on the bikes after the first race in Australia. For the Evo class bike and David Salom, we had to finish the bike at the last minute for Phillip Island, so for sure we will introduce many changes from PI to Motorland. Because of this it is very important for us to put all these new things on the Evo bike at this test. Maybe we will also make some tests with Loris and Tom on the Evo bike. Maybe Loris will make more laps to make real comparison between the full Superbike and the Evo Superbike.”

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