British World Superbike rider Tom Sykes will take sizzling test form into this weekend’s first round at Phillip Island – a track he rates among his “least favourite”.

Sykes might disagree with most about the circuit, but it did not stop him leading defending champion Carlos Checa after two days of testing.

The Yorkshireman produced a 1minute 31.648second lap on his Kawasaki to keep Checa behind him over two runs on the second day.

Sykes said the team “stumbled across a couple of good things” during the test.

“At the end of the sessions, we did 14 laps on race tyres and it was very consistent, with the times coming easier than they were doing with previous settings,” Sykes aid.

“Honestly speaking, this is not one of my favourite circuits. In fact, it is one of my least favourite ones, so I am happy that we are towards the front at this track because I know that the performance should increase at the other circuits.

“I do not want to get too carried away because I like to keep my feet on the ground, so we’ll keep working and see what happens on race weekend.”

Sykes has improved dramatically since he moved out of the shadow of Ben Spies at Yamaha and joined Kawasaki last year.

He managed to score a victory in the wet at the tough Nurburgring track last season and has warned he plans to be on the pace from the start this year.

Also riding for Kawasaki at Phillip Island will be Australian Bryan Staring, who was called up as a replacement for Leandro Mercado, who broke his arm in a crash on his supermoto bike.

The 19-year-old suffered the fracture during a training session last week in Argentina and hopes to return for the second round at Imola in Italy.

Staring said he was “happy in general” after testing but feels he can improve dramatically before qualifying.

“We can still improve a couple of small things,” Staring said. “It is only on the one flying lap that I have not been able to do so well, but we put in a reasonable time.

“I think we are in a better position than the timesheets suggest. It is a good motorbike and I think we can do a pretty good job with it. I just hope to get a strong lap time out of it on Friday,” he said.