Tom Sykes

Tom Sykes
Sykes at World Superbikes, Silverstone, 2012.
Nationality	English
Born	(1985-08-19) 19 August 1985 Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Current team	Kawasaki Racing Team
Bike number	66
Motorcycle racing career statistics Superbike World Championship Active years 2008 – present Manufacturers Suzuki, Yamaha, KawasakiCurrent Championships 1 (2013) 2014 Championship position 2nd (410Points) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 158 22 49 24 21 1672.5

Tom Sykes (born 19 August 1985 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England) is a motorcycle road racer. In 2007 he gained his first ride in British Superbikes, riding a Stobart Vent-Axia Honda; Sykes finished in sixth position in the championship in his rookie year. Following this success he was signed by the Rizla Suzuki team for the 2008 season; he went on to finish 4th in the championship as well as making wildcard World Superbike appearances at Brands Hatch & Donington Park, where he impressed strongly, helping him gain a World Superbike ride at Yamaha Motor Italia for the 2009 season.^[1] For 2010 he races a Paul Bird Motorsport Kawasaki in the series. He won his first SBK title in 2013 for Kawasaki.

Early years

Skyes has a brother named Oliver Sykes and his brother is in a band called Bring Me The Horizon. Sykes is the grandson of Peter Brooks, who is involved in the manufacture of Kawasaki bikes. Sykes raced in the British Supersport championship from 2003 to 2006, finishing 8th, 5th, 6th, and as runner-up to Cal Crutchlow in 2006.^[2]

British Superbikes 2007–2008

2007 was his first season in the British Superbike championship, riding for the Stobart Vent-Axia Honda team alongside 2003 series champion Shane Byrne. He finished 18 of the first 20 rounds, including a pair of 4th places at Snetterton.^[3] Second on the grid at Oulton Park,^[4] and pole at Donington Park.^[5] Sykes took his first two podiums at the Croft Circuit, to move up to 6th in the championship, immediately behind Byrne, and immediately ahead of Leon Camier on another Honda.

Shortly after joining the Rizla Suzuki team for 2008, he was seen testing a Suzuki MotoGP bike.^[6] Sykes started the 2008 with a 6th and an 8th at Thruxton (The first races were there as the season opener at Brands Hatch was snowed off). He took pole position at Oulton Park, but crashed at the aborted start of race 1, before finishing 5th on the restart . He led race 2 until being taken out by Leon Haslam, who was excluded for the move. Sykes continued to finish towards the front of the field consistently scoring podiums at Brands Hatch (2nd), Donington Park (3rd) and Snetterton (3rd) all in the first of the 2 races. It was at Oulton Park where he scored his first two victories, taking the lead from James Ellison late in race 1 but leading most of race 2. He followed that up with a third straight win at Knockhill in the first race, and collected podiums for the rest of the championship. Sykes finished 4th in the championship with 316 points, 2 points behind Cal Crutchlow.

World Superbikes 2008 – present

Sykes made his World Superbike Championship debut at Brands Hatch as a wildcard, impressing by qualifying sixth (ahead of three works Suzukis with more powerful engines, including title contender Max Neukirchner). He retired from a strong position in race 1 due to a hole in the radiator by rocks thrown up by Max Biaggi's Sterilgarda Ducati machine, but came back to finish 6th in race 2. He gained a second wildcard meeting at Donington Park in changeable conditions, where he proved even stronger. He again qualified on the second row, but got a flying start in race one and had a comfortable lead when the race was red-flagged due to oil from Noriyuki Haga's Yamaha. Knowing he had to finish within 4 seconds of Troy Bayliss to win on aggregate, Sykes lead early in race two, before easing off after seeing a white flag with a red cross, which typically means a slippery surface (often with the yellow and red striped oil flag), but racing in British Superbike Championship races, the flag neutralises the race under a full-course caution period with safety car deployment, so Sykes and Leon Haslam both eased up, anticipating neutralisation, but the time lost here proved costly, as Sykes failed to stay close enough to Bayliss, finishing second behind the three-time series champion. He was less competitive in race two, but his reputation had still been boosted.

On 11 September 2008 Sykes signed a contract with the Yamaha Motor Italia World Superbike team for the 2009 season, with an option to extend that contract until 2010 depending on results.^[1] Sykes had an average year finishing mostly mid-pack, while his team mate Ben Spies was at the front of the field. This led to Yamaha not offering Sykes a second year, instead hiring fellow Brits James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow.

Sykes signed for the Paul Bird Motorsport Kawasaki team for 2010, as had been rumoured,^[7] enabling him to stay in the World Superbike class. Sykes said

“It’s going to be a challenge, but I’m looking forward to it. I believe that from what is in place in the team we’re going to be able to do a good job.”

The Kawasaki was relatively uncompetitive in 2010, but Sykes managed a strong fifth place at Monza. He was the team leader for much of the year, with the more experienced Chris Vermeulen struggling following a knee injury sustained at the first round at Phillip Island. Despite speculation as to his future with the team, Sykes flew to Japan to help test the ZX-10R, the bike the team will use for 2011.^[8] He made a wildcard appearance with the team in the British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch.^[9]

On the final weekend of the 2010 World Superbike Championship season, Sykes confirmed that he had signed a one year contract with Kawasaki that would see him ride in the 2011 Superbike World Championship season.^[10]

Sykes crashed in the chicane at Donington Park shortly after he passed an Aprilia and moved up to 4th place and he was taken out of the race while his teammates managed mid -placings. He finished close to last on race 2, but Lascorz made 6th.

Tom Sykes has been crowned the 2013 World Superbike Champion after securing the third place finish he needed to secure a popular title victory at Jerez, while Eugene Laverty took a dramatic last corner victory over Marco Melandri.

On 21 June 2014, Tom Sykes captured his 21st career Superpole at Italy’s Misano World Circuit for round seven of the series.^[11]

Career statistics

All time

Series		Years Active	Races	Poles	Podiums	Wins	2nd place	3rd place	Fast Laps	Titles
British Superbike Championship		2007–08, 2010	53	2	18	5	6	7	0	0
World Superbike Championship		2009−	158	24	49	22	11	16	21	1
Total			211	26	67	27	17	23	21	1

British Supersport Championship

Races by year

Yr	Class	Team	SIL	BHI	SNE	OUL	MON	SNE	BHGP	KNO	MAL	CRO	CAD	OUL	DON	Pos	Pts	Ref
2004	BSS	Suzuki	10	Ret	7	14	4	10	Ret	5	9	4	2	2	3	5th	123	[12]

Yr	Class	Team	BHI	THR	MAL	OUL	MON	CRO	KNO	SNE	SIL	CAD	OUL	DON	BHGP	Pos	Pts	Ref
2005	BSS	Suzuki	Ret	9	2	1	1	4					3	Ret	4	5th	119	[13]

Yr	Class	Team	BHI	DON	THR	OUL	MON	MAL	SNE	KNO	OUL	CRO	CAD	SIL	BHGP	Pos	Pts	Ref
2006	BSS	Suzuki	9	5	6	3	C	3	3	Ret	2	2	2	2	3	2nd	172	[14]

British Superbike Championship

Races by year

Yr	Class	Team	BHGP		THR		SIL		OUL		SNE		MOP		KNO		OUL		MAL		CRO		CAD		DON		BHI		Pos	Pts	Ref
			R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2
2007	BSB	Honda	7	5	5	7	7	6	5	6	4	4	Ret	7	6	4	Ret	6	6	4	3	3	3	5	2	2	Ret	7	6th	279

Yr	Class	Team	THR		OUL		BHGP		DON		SNE		MAL		OUL		KNO		CAD		CRO		SIL		BHI		Pos	Pts	Ref
			R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2
2008	BSB	Suzuki	6	8	5	Ret	2	Ret	3	6	3	7	4	4	1	1	1	4	2	2	3	2	DSQ	3	6	Ret	4th	316	[15]

Year	Bike	1		2		3		4		5		6		7			8			9		10		11		12			Pos	Pts	Ref
		R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R3
2010	Kawasaki	BHI	BHI	THR	THR	OUL	OUL	CAD	CAD	MAL	MAL	KNO	KNO	SNE	SNE	SNE	BHGP 5	BHGP 1	BHGP 1	CAD	CAD	CRO	CRO	SIL	SIL	OUL	OUL	OUL	16th	61	[16]

Superbike World Championship

Races by year

Year	Make	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		12		13		14		Pos	Pts
		R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2
2008	Suzuki	QAT	QAT	AUS	AUS	ESP	ESP	NED	NED	ITA	ITA	USA	USA	GER	GER	SMR	SMR	CZE	CZE	GBR Ret	GBR 7	EUR 2	EUR 10	ITA	ITA	FRA	FRA	POR	POR	21st	35
2009	Yamaha	AUS 10	AUS 10	QAT 7	QAT 5	SPA 7	SPA 10	NED 4	NED 6	ITA 6	ITA 6	RSA 10	RSA 9	USA 13	USA 9	SMR 8	SMR 7	GBR Ret	GBR 5	CZE Ret	CZE 7	GER 9	GER 8	ITA 9	ITA 12	FRA Ret	FRA Ret	POR DNS	POR DNS	9th	176
2010	Kawasaki	AUS 13	AUS Ret	POR 15	POR 13	SPA 11	SPA 15	NED 12	NED Ret	ITA 9	ITA 5	RSA 16	RSA 14	USA 13	USA 14	SMR 15	SMR 16	CZE 11	CZE Ret	GBR 18	GBR 14	GER 5	GER 7	ITA 6	ITA 4	FRA 7	FRA 11			14th	106
2011	Kawasaki	AUS 8	AUS 9	EUR Ret	EUR 12	NED 14	NED 11	ITA 13	ITA 11	USA 6	USA 10	SMR 4	SMR 14	SPA 5	SPA Ret	CZE 10	CZE 14	GBR DNS	GBR DNS	GER 11	GER 1	ITA 4	ITA Ret	FRA 8	FRA Ret	POR 10	POR Ret			13th	141
2012	Kawasaki	AUS 4	AUS 3	ITA 2	ITA 2	NED Ret	NED 6	ITA C	ITA 1	EUR 3	EUR 3	USA 8	USA 5	SMR 4	SMR 7	SPA Ret	SPA 8	CZE 2	CZE 2	GBR 8	GBR 12	RUS 1	RUS 2	GER 4	GER 5	POR 1	POR Ret	FRA 3	FRA 1	2nd	357.5
2013	Kawasaki	AUS 5	AUS 5	SPA Ret	SPA 3	NED 1	NED 2	ITA 2	ITA 3	GBR 1	GBR 1	POR 3	POR NC	ITA 1	ITA 1	RUS Ret	RUS C	GBR 11	GBR 7	GER 1	GER 4	TUR 3	TUR 2	USA 1	USA 4	FRA 1	FRA 1	SPA 3	SPA 2	1st	447
2014	Kawasaki	AUS 7	AUS 3	SPA 1	SPA 1	NED 2	NED 4	ITA 3	ITA 5	GBR 1	GBR 1	MAL Ret	MAL 3	SMR 1	SMR 1	POR 1	POR 8	USA 3	USA 1	SPA 5	SPA 3	FRA 4	FRA 4	QAT 3	QAT 3					2nd	410
2015	Kawasaki	AUS 6	AUS 4	THA 3	THA 5	SPA 3	SPA Ret	NED 5	NED 5	ITA	ITA	GBR	GBR	POR	POR	SMR	SMR	USA	USA	MAL	MAL	SPA	SPA	FRA	FRA	QAT	QAT			4th*	88*

• * Season in progress.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tom Sykes.

• Tom Sykes official website
• Profile at Yamaha Racing website
• Profile at Rizla Suziki website

Superbike World Champions 1988–1989: Fred Merkel 1990: Raymond Roche 1991–1992: Doug Polen 1993: Scott Russell 1994–1995: Carl Fogarty 1996: Troy Corser 1997: John Kocinski 1998–1999: Carl Fogarty 2000: Colin Edwards 2001: Troy Bayliss 2002: Colin Edwards 2003: Neil Hodgson 2004: James Toseland 2005: Troy Corser 2006: Troy Bayliss 2007: James Toseland 2008: Troy Bayliss 2009: Ben Spies 2010: Max Biaggi 2011: Carlos Checa 2012: Max Biaggi 2013: Tom Sykes 2014: Sylvain Guintoli