Hook unlikely to race, Sykes fastest
A bone-jarring crash has all but forced Hook out of round one of the world superbike title, while Tom Sykes rounded off his pre-season in styleAustralia's young gun, Taree’s Josh Hook, is unlikely to race at the opening round of the 2016 Superbike World Championship at Phillip Island after dislocating his left shoulder and suffering a small break* in testing this afternoon.
In sweltering afternoon heat, Hook crashed his Kawasaki at turn two and was transported to the circuit medical centre where he was declared unfit to race — a sour start to his rookie WorldSBK season.
However, the determined Hook, keen to make his debut for his newGrillini Kawasaki team, plans to see a specialist in Melbourne tomorrow (Weds). He will still need clearance from the circuit’s Chief Medical Officer later in the week to be allowed to compete in the weekend’s two 22-lap races.
Hook was 20th fastest in today’s sessions, while the other Australians in the international field, Josh Brookes (BMW Motorrad) and wildcard Mike Jones (Ducati). completed the two-day test at Phillip Island in positions 15th and 16th respectively.
Day two video highlights here:
Kawasaki's Tom Sykes was fastest across the two days with a 1:31.097 set in Monday’s cooler afternoon termperatures, with teammate and current world champion Jonathan Rea second quickest (1:31.249).
The next nine riders on the timesheets were all well within a second of Sykes, as this year's WorldSBK season shapes up as a battle royal. Davide Giugliano (Ducati) was third followed by Honda's Michael van der Mark, Sylvain Guintoli (Yamaha), Jordi Torres (BMW Motorrad), Nicky Hayden (Honda), Alex Lowes (Yamaha), Xavi Fores (Ducati), Chaz Davies (Ducati) and German Marcus Reiterberger (BMW Motorrad).
In another casualty, Italian Fabio Menghi crashed his Ducati in today’s morning session and was transported to Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital by air ambulance. He has a fracture to his left pelvis and is out for the season-opener.
The majority of riders set their best lap times in the cooler day one conditions, with the ambient temperature climbing well into the 30s today.
The WorldSBK riders will now take two days off before round one kicks off on Friday. The 22-lap WorldSBK races will be held at 3:00pm on Saturday and Sunday, and the world supersport race starts at 1:30pm on Sunday.
There will also be back-to-back support racing in Aussie superbikes, supersport and Moto3/125GP, as well as historics.
For information on this weekend’s (Feb 26-28) opening round of the 2016 Motul FIM Superbike World Championship, Yamaha Finance round, at Phillip Island GP circuit go to www.worldsbk.com.au Tickets on sale via www.ticketek.com.au till Wednesday Feb 24 at 4pm; then at gate.
*Hook has suffered a greater tubercle fracture to his left shoulder, a small fracture often associated with shoulder dislocation
Hook interview here:
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