Tom Sykes and the official Kawasaki Racing Team completed the first winter test in readiness for the 2016 FIM Superbike World Championship campaign, with positive days of progress and evaluation at Motorland Aragon finishing up yesterday, 29th October. The bulk of the testing was completed towards the end of the three days and Sykes set 72 laps on the final day.

With significant numbers of 2016 season parts being tested on the Ninja ZX-10R at this, the first of many winter tests, the team and KHI now expect to make a greater transition to the full 2016-spec machine at the next tests at Jerez de La Frontera, next week. They will also re-confirm the parts and settings that proved so positive at Motorland.

There were significant improvements in the braking stability and engine performance of the WorldSBK spec race machine around Motorland, even in this first full track test, as lone tester Tom Sykes and his crew worked through almost their entire schedule of work.

On a clear final day, after occasional wet conditions earlier in the tests, Sykes set a best lap time of 1’50.6, a mark which he matched with some consistency throughout. Over the whole test Sykes did 139 laps of the long 5.077km circuit in the north of Spain.

The team now heads right across Spain to test at the Andalusia circuit of Jerez de La Frontera, between 3 and 4 November - this time with new World Champion Jonathan Rea (KRT) joining in after the recent birth of his second child meant he missed the first test at Motorland Aragon.

“We are heading back in a good direction to something we know,” said Sykes. “We ironed out some teething problems and got a general feel for things on the opening days and then yesterday, when the sun was out from start to finish, we got our heads down and worked through a whole book of tricks. The team worked overtime yesterday- parts in, parts out – all day. They all worked really efficiently and kept us on track for the maximum time possible. The overall performance of the Ninja ZX-10R at these tests is something that excites me. Overall the lap times were really consistent. The feeling was easier to achieve than I have been used to. It is still early days but this has definitely been a good start to our winter test programme.”