Croft British Superbikes: Tom Sykes: ‘I’m not going to give up’

Tom Sykes offered a stern warning to Shane Byrne after the Croft weekend that he wasn’t going to make it easy for the Airwaves man to reclaim his second British Superbike title.

Sykes along with Leon Haslam kept the BSB crown out of reaching distance of Byrne with podiums for both riders in both races – a third and second for Sykes.

That was enough to deny Byrne the championship, for that weekend anyway.

And Sykes proved he wasn’t going to give up his challenge with a forceful pass on Byrne at the final corner on the last lap of race one to push the champion elect back to fifth.

After his double podium finish Sykes said: “A big thank you to my Rizla Suzuki crew and to PJ, my Chief Mechanic; they worked hard and made the double podium result possible.

“In the opening race I was struggling for grip and feel so PJ made some major changes to the chassis geometry for the second race and that really worked.

“I only wish I could have rewarded the boys with a win.”

With the news of Sykes future now signed to World Superbikes with the Factory Yamaha team, nobody could have said he wasn’t still thinking about this years championship.

“It’s tight in the fight for second in the Championship and now I’m four points behind Haslam.

“I’ll be looking to get these points back with interest at the next round and as long as there is a mathematical chance of winning the Championship I am not going to give up.

“It’s still all to play for.”