WSBK preview: Assen
World superbike returns to ‘The Cathedral' – the second most visited venue in the history of the series after Phillip Island -- with Tom Sykes the pacesetterAfter raising the bar in the second round of the season, the Kawasaki factory duo of Tom Sykes and Loris Baz hopes to keep the momentum going when the world superbike title continues at Assen in Holland this weekend.
After the pair went 1-2 in both races, only Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli remains within close range in the championship standings. The Frenchman is 11 points shy of Sykes and seven behind Baz, while Marco Melandri (Aprilia) lies fourth in the standings ahead of Honda’s Jonathan Rea and Suzuki’s Eugene Laverty.
Rea approaches his team’s home round with renewed confidence after the solid results achieved so far aboard the updated CBR1000RR SP. The Ulsterman has the most wins at Assen of the current WSBK crop – four.
Laverty climbed on the top step of the podium at Assen for the first time last year, as he got the better of race one winner Sykes after a masterful display. He and his teammate Alex Lowes are hoping to make the most of a more suitable track for their GSX-R1000s, likewise Ducati pair Davide Giugliano and Chaz Davies who struggled at Aragon.
MV Agusta RC – Yakhnich Motorsport (Claudio Corti) and Team Hero EBR (Geoff May and Aaron Yates) will continue their learning curve at Assen, aiming to narrow the gap to the other manufacturers.
Leon Camier will again replace injured Sylvain Barrier for the BMW Motorrad Italia Superbike Team. The Brit crossed the line in the first race at Aragon as the best placed EVO rider (12th overall) and finished behind David Salom (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Niccolò Canepa (Althea Racing Ducati) in race two
Following a positive debut in Spain, Bimota Alstare pairing of Ayrton Badovini and Christian Iddon will get in the mix again with the rest the EVO field.
In world supersport, championship favourite Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki) got his defence back on track at Aragon with a victory, and his main opposition at Assen will include round one winner Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta), points leader Kevin Coghlan (Yamaha), Florian Marino (Kawasaki) and Raffaele de Rosa (Honda).
All the action will again be beamed live on SPEED, starting from 6:00pm on Sunday, April 27.
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