Tom Sykes returns to World Superbikes

A year after he retired from the Motul FIM Superbike World Championship, Tom Sykes will make his return, signing with the independent team Kawasaki Puccetti Racing for the 2023 season.

After hinting as far back as July that he’d welcome a return to the production bike class, the 37-year-old announced on 8 November that he will replace Lucas Mahias at Kawasaki Puccetti Racing and reunite with the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR he last rode in 2018. The Brit spent the 2019-21 seasons on a BMW M 1000 RR.

“I’m really happy to be joining Kawasaki Puccetti Racing and returning to the WorldSBK paddock,” Sykes said. “For years, I’ve been impressed by the way in which Manuel Puccetti manages his team and by the mentality with which he goes racing, as well as the team’s infrastructure of course.

“I’m highly motivated ahead of the 2023 racing season. I also have another opportunity, in that I’ll be part of the Kawasaki family once more, building on a relationship that has always been very solid. I can’t wait to get started on this project and get to know the whole team.”

Sykes’s full-time WSBK career began in 2009, after a one-off ride in the World Supersport championship in 2006 and a handful of wildcard entries in World Superbike in 2008. That first full season was spent on a Yamaha before moving to the Kawasaki Racing Team in 2010, where he would spend the next nine years.

The Brit’s first race win came in 2011 and his sole world championship in 2013 after narrowly losing the 2012 title - by half a point – to Max Biaggi.

From 2015, Sykes played second fiddle to his Kawasaki team mate Jonathan Rea before joining the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team in 2019.

While he achieved 34 race wins (all with Kawasaki) and 114 podiums in his time in WSBK, Sykes is perhaps better known for his Superpole performances, with 51 pole positions the most in the category’s history.