The status quo in the Kawasaki camp doesn’t look like changing anytime soon...
The simmering tensions within the KRT Kawasaki team would appear to be coming to a head, if quotes attributed to erstwhile champion Tom Sykes are anything to go by. Tom has apparently told some outlets that he is fed up of team-mate Jonny Rea ‘provoking’ him. This could be further backed up by post-Imola interviews, where Tom lamented an apparent fact that if Jonny concentrated on beating non-green rivals, rather than his team-mate, they could be able to get a much firmer handle on rising star Chaz Davies.
Now, we’re quite sure that Tom’s inability to beat Jonny more than once this year may have something to do with what would appear to be sour grapes, but at the same time, this fallout has been long in the making. It has led, we hear, to Tom having talks with Ducati about taking one of the official factory seats in 2017. It’s widely thought that Davide Guigliano’s time there is nearing an end, and given the resurgence of the Panigale and the fact that Ducati has something new and shiny coming very soon, it’s a seat that will be hotly contested. As for Tom, we feel for the Yorkshireman. When the rules changed the bike he loved no longer loved him, and his new team-mate went and won the title on it. Since then, the needle has been dug in further with every win Rea has scored. Sykes has been somewhat synonymous with Kawasaki for many years now and won its first title in decades, so whether or not it pulls out all the stops to retain him is yet to be seen. But if the Grinner ain’t winning, he sure won’t be grinning, and he’ll likely do whatever it takes to get that number one plate back again even if that means leaving Team Green for good...