Silverstone BSB: ‘A few tweaks’ left for Sykes at season opener

Tom Sykes will return to Bennetts British Superbike action for the first time in 14 years at this weekend’s Silverstone season opener and is second only to Jason O’Halloran at the bookies as title favourite.

Sykes moved from BSB to WorldSBK full time in 2009 with a works Yamaha ride alongside Ben Spies who made everyone look average on his way to the title. Since then, Sykes won a championship for Kawasaki and then moved to BMW but was given his P45 over winter.

Picked up by Paul Bird and paired with Josh Brookes - which will be an interesting dynamic - Sykes has had to learn to ride with no electronics, on year-old Pirelli tyres and has also had to learn a different Snetterton and a short Silverstone.

“It feels like it’s been a long time coming but we’re all sorted and ready for round one. We have spun some good laps in the tests, and we have a setup which I’m very happy with,” said the Huddersfield man.

“We just need to make a few tweaks as the weather at the Silverstone test wasn’t great, so we have a few things up our sleeve to try still. The weather is looking good for the weekend, so the plan is to get some solid points on the board.”