Things are heating up at the Kawasaki Racing Team in World Superbike, with Jonathan Rea accusing Tom Sykes of being too aggressive on track. This happens after the two team-mates close encounter at the Brno round, when on lap 3 of the Race 2, Rea ended up in the gravel after touching Tom Sykes.
The triple world champion Jonathan Rea and the former World Superbike champion Tom Sykes have never been the best of friends, especially since the moment Rea joined Kawasaki and Sykes couldn’t beat him ever since.
But in Brno, things escalated to an all new level.
Jonathan Rea says about the Brno incident that “I can’t understand is what was in Tom’s brain in that moment of madness. I can’t understand this guy that when every other rider in the paddock passes, him, he cannot fight with other riders. He goes in the race when there is a fight to be had, he is going backwards. But when it is me, he is attacking straight back at the next corner”.
Tom Sykes defends himself by saying that “for example, there was no action taken [by Race Direction]. I was speaking to race direction, because clearly somebody has complained, but you can see when he passes me into the right, he goes in there too fast and my bike never changes angle. There are a couple of bumps and you see the camera moving but it never changes the degree. It is a nice linear pick up. If there was anything like that you would see it on the camera anyway. The fact is he made a mistake. If I pass somebody on the inside and run wide, when I cut the bike back, you have always got to check”.
Things are clearly heating up inside the Kawasaki garage, and with Jonathan Rea already secured for two more years with the Japanese manufacturer, it remains to be seen if Tom Sykes will also renew his contract with Kawasaki.