Photography by Gold & Goose
It all comes down to this: Two races, two riders, two manufacturers and the World Superbike Championship up for grabs. That’s the scenario for the World Superbike season finale, a race that will take place under the lights for the first time in series history.
The Losail Circuit in Qatar is the place with Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes and Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli set to face off in their battle for the championship in the two 17-lap races that will decide it all.
Sykes struggled in the wet conditions at Magny-Cours a few weeks ago, allowing Guintoli and his first- and second-place finishes to gain the points need to ensure a final round title battle.
Sykes, the defending World Superbike Champion, thus heads to Losail with a 12-point advantage over Guintoli and hopes to add to his eight-race win total at a circuit he enjoys.
“I am really looking forward to racing at Losail because it is a track I have competed at before and I was also here for the Ninja ZX-10R launch,” Sykes said. “I rode under the floodlights during the launch and it is a completely different experience – and one that I am really looking forward to again. The layout at Losail is fantastic as you can open up the full potential of a Superbike and you feel that there is a good element of safety, so I cannot wait to get going on Friday evening. It has come down to crunch time and there is a lot at stake at this meeting – but I am just looking to go out and do what we normally do. There has been some input from the weather in the championship recently, which obviously made it closer than it perhaps would have been, but the long and short of it is that we are the ones with the advantage so we need to make the most of that. I am in the very fortunate position that this is the third year on the bounce that we have been battling for the World Championship so we just need to see what we can make of it on race day.”
Losail has not been used for World Superbike racing since the 2009 season, but Sykes has raced there before, finishing seventh and fifth in Qatar during his rookie superbike season with Yamaha.
While Sykes leading the riders’ championship, Aprilia is 23 points ahead in the manufacturers title chase. Still, Guintoli has held the hot hand since the U.S. round at Laguna Seca, closing a 44-point gap down to the 12 points he currently trails by.
“Last visit to Qatar I won the race [the 8 Hours of Doha) and the team I raced for was World Champion [in the Endurance Championship], back in 2010,” Guintoli said. “I love the track and it will suit the RSV4 like a glove. I am very excited about this weekend and very focused on our target. I have worked very hard for this and since Laguna we have closed the gap from 44 to 12 points. Sykes is defending well, but we are now very close.”
Whether or not Guintoli gets any help from his teammate Marco Melandri remains to be seen. In France Melandri helped in race one, but then ignored team orders in race two. Pre-race, it sounds like Melandri is hoping to help Aprilia take the manufacturers title, but he doesn’t mention his teammate.
“I’m very happy to race at night in Qatar,” Melandri said. “I really like both this place and this track and I’m sure that my RSV4 will adapt very well. I really want to continue my position streak and help Aprilia take the Manufacturer World Championship.”
