Mallory Park British Superbikes: Tom Sykes reaction on second BSB career pole

Tom Sykes heads into tomorrow’s British Superbike races at Mallory Park full of confidence after securing his second career British Sueprbike pole on his spare bike.

Sykes, whose first pole came last year at Donington Park with the Stobart Honda team, set the fastest lap of 56.005 in the dying seconds of the qualifying session today to deny Michael Laverty the top spot on his Suzuki.

And despite taking the top spot on his number two machine, Sykes said he reckons he could have gone even quicker on his number one bike if he hadn’t suffered mechanical problems with that bike twenty minutes into the session.

He said: “I came round with two minutes to go in qualifying and my dash told me I recorded a 56.2s lap. I was so close to pole I decided to get my head down and go for it.

“I had to try hard but a pole is a pole and I am delighted.

“I could have gone even quicker; a 55-second lap was possible but my spare bike was backing in and we didn’t have time to dial in new settings so I wasn’t quite able to go as fast as I wanted.

“The good news is that we can go faster with my number one Rizla Suzuki and that’ll be ready for tomorrow, so bring on the racing.

“Thank you to my Rizla Suzuki team for all its support and help, my GSX-R1000 is fantastic.”

Team Manager, Jack Valentine, was full of superlatives for his pole-sitting rider after the session.

With Sykes being hugely competitive all season, it came of no surprise to the former manager for the likes of Carl Fogarty that a pole and a win is on the cards for the 21-year old Huddersfield rider.

Valentine said: “That was simply awesome; there is no other way to describe it.

Tom was mega on his spare bike and took pole position emphatically.

“He would have been even further ahead of the field if his number one bike had been available but an intermittent fault meant it wasn’t available – although it will be tomorrow when Rizla Suzuki and Tom Sykes will be competing for a long over-due victory.”