After a summer break of five weekends for the 2017 FIM Superbike World Championship, racing will get underway again over the weekend of 18th to 20th August, at the Lausitzring in Germany.
After a successful recent test at the 4.255km-long EuroSpeedway Lausitz both championship leader Jonathan Rea and second place points scorer Tom Sykes are well prepared for their next chance to aim for race wins and podium places.
Thanks to a tally of nine race wins through the first sector of the 2017 season double KRT world champion Rea leads his own team-mate Sykes by 59 points, after the eighth meeting of the 13 round/26 race series in America last month.
Having taken victories in two races in 2017 Sykes is keen to get back to winning ways again soon to try and close the points gap to the lead. Tom currently has a 56-point advantage over the third placed rider in the championship, Chaz Davies. 2013 season champion Sykes will also celebrate his 32nd birthday in Germany, on Saturday 19th August. The two 21-lap races will be held on the 19th and 20th.
The Lausitzring will be hosting its seventh WorldSBK weekend this time around, after returning to the track in the far east of Germany last year for the first time since 2007. Rea notched up a race win at the vast Lausitzring for KRT in 2016, in conditions of heavy rain during race two, recovering strongly after a no-score in race one.
After the completion of round nine in Germany the championship returns to a WorldSBK venue from its relatively recent past, Portimao. Round ten in Portugal will take place over the weekend of 15th to 17th September.
Jonathan Rea, stated:
“I am really excited to get back to racing again after the summer break. Our test at the Lausitzring a few weeks ago was positive and I feel more confident about returning there after a difficult race last year. The track is very bumpy but we managed to find a good compromise with our setup and I feel good about our starting point for the weekend. During the break I prepared myself for the next phase of the championship. The target is to work in the same way we have been doing all season.”
Tom Sykes, stated:
“We will go racing again now after a bit of a summer break. We had good test in Germany and gained some valuable information. We were on the back foot a little at this circuit last year so it is good to feel a lot more prepared going into the Lausitz race weekend this time. I feel my pace in our recent test there was in the ballpark. Now we just need focus our attention and fine-tune things a little. The summer break has not felt like a very long one, because of the travel back from Laguna, then the test at Lausitz and then the race weekend itself in a few days time. It does not feel like it was a massive break and it feels strange to be racing in August - and on my birthday weekend too!”