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THE WEEK 04-05
FOCUS 06-43
COMMENT 44-47
BIKE LIFE 48-71
SPORT 92-104
04.04.2012 Wednesday
103
Sykes led the early stages, but Checa made the most of his tyres
Tyre life is Checa’s advantage When you look at their tyres it’s easy to understand why Carlos Checa was able to overhaul Sykes at mid distance in both races. The pictures below were taken at the end of race one in parc ferme. Checa opted for the softer ‘B’ compound. His tyre is used, but worn smoothly with no real signs of severe degradation on the left hand side – the pieces of rubber stuck to the tyre are ‘marbles’ from where he has gone off line during his celebration lap. In contrast Sykes’s harder ‘C’ compound tyre is showing severe signs of wear particularly on the left side, which would have led to a loss of grip, increased slides and more and more intervention from the traction control system – which ultimately cuts power and slows the rider down.
CHECA
Even wear on softer ‘B’ compound Haslam and Sykes are on in-line four cylinder screamers. Their all-action styles and natural ability to ride on the limit mean they can exploit the explosive power and high horsepower of their respective machines, but the aggression they need to be fast has a detrimental effect on tyre life. It’s not a new problem for Sykes, throughout 2011 he often showed impressive early race pace, but was always compromised by a rapidly degrading tyre. Throughout winter testing this was the almost exclusive area of focus for the Kawasaki team and they have clearly found something. Combined
If the races had been ten laps long instead of 21, Sykes could have done the double MCN’s Michael Guy
with the introduction of the new rideby-wire system the Kawasaki has pace and significantly improved tyre life, but it’s yet to be a match for the Ducati. Sykes said: “We actually had very good pace to match Checa in the hotter conditions, but race day was a lot cooler and that hurt us. In race two the temperature was higher and it was borderline whether we could have used the softer tyre. For sure, it would have been a gamble and my team decided not to do anything silly, so we stayed on the harder tyre and I was still able to bring it home in second position.” For BMW their problems are less
specific, but tyre life and grip are still playing a massive part in set-up – whether it’s influencing the engine braking electronics, push into the corner, end of race performance or chatter. The Imola race showed us that on fresh rubber Sykes and Haslam can match Checa every step of the way. If the races had been ten laps long instead of 21, Sykes would have probably done the double and be celebrating Kawasaki’s first dry win for over a decade. But they weren’t. While Sykes and Haslam have definitely found something extra in 2012, there is still work to be done.
SYKES
Harder ‘C’ rubber with severe wear