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KAWASAKI RACING TEAM >> A record breaking weekend for the Kawasaki Racing Team

September 05 2010

5 September 2010
For Immediate Release
KAWASAKI RACING TEAM PRESS INFORMATION

The Kawasaki Racing Team celebrated their best results of the season with British born, Tom Sykes taking a fantastic fifth and seventh place at the famous Nurburgring circuit this weekend in Germany for the 11th round of the Hannspree World Superbike Championship.

Sykes fine-stunned his Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R machine during Saturday’s qualifying sessions with a superb seventh place after an outstanding Superpole performance, the Teams best qualifying position all year. Starting from the second row allowed the 25-year-old the opportunity to impress during both of Sunday’s races with outstanding starts off the line and a consistent pace to mark him with the front runners for both of the 20-lap races.

Northern Irishman, Ian Lowry completed the Teams successful weekend on his World Superbike debut by finishing race one inside the points with an impressive twelfth place. Having not raced at the 5.137 km circuit before and not having had much time or experience on the  Kawasaki factory machine, Lowry continued to improve as the weekend progressed but unfortunately had a slide off in race two after a settings change didn’t go to plan.
 
The two race winners for round eleven of the Hannspree World Superbike were taken by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda rider, Jonathan Rea and Xerox Ducati rider, Noriyuki Haga in front of the German crowd. Tom Sykes currently lies in fifteenth place in the Championship with two races remaining. 
 
The Team also celebrated the exclusive unveiling of the new 2011 ZX-10R on Thursday evening by giving a sneak preview of the hugley anticipated Ninja machine. Key Kawasaki representatives also spoke for the first time about their aspirations and ambitions of the awaiting bike in the World Superbike Championship for 2011.
 
The Kawasaki Racing Team now head to the popular Imola circuit, located just outside of Bologna in Italy for the penultimate round of the Championship on the 24-26 September.

Tom Sykes
“We’ve had quite a strong performance here at the Nurburgring this weekend from both myself and the Team and I’m very happy with how it’s gone. I just wished we could have hang in there a bit more in race two but overall I can’t complain as it’s our best result for the year.  We came here with a good base package and worked well with what we new was our setting goal so this meant we didn’t need to make big changes, just a few tweaks which ultimately is much easier on a rider. I was able to just focus on fine tuning the bike and the best tyre combinations to get my ultimate setting. Overall it’s been a massive effort from the Team and Kawasaki and although I’d like to thank every individual, I have to give additional thanks to Johnny my crew chief, and Javier from Showa, for giving me the best package this weekend which I was able to show in the races and come away with some strong results for Kawasaki.”

Ian Lowry
“I was really excited to have been asked to ride this weekend for the Factory Kawasaki Team and although I obviously haven’t ridden around the Nurburgring before or spent much time on the bike, I felt that I started the weekend in pretty good shape. I spent most of Friday learning the track and getting my base setting comfortable and with each session on track I felt more comfortable and could see that I was making progress on my lap times. I was really pleased to have finished 12th in race one and get some points for the team but I’m just a bit disappointed that I didn’t get to improve my time and performance in race two having had a slide off after we took the wrong direction with our settings. But without focusing on the negatives, overall I have thoroughly enjoyed my first outing at the World Superbikes with the Kawasaki Racing Team and I hope that I get another opportunity to race with them again.”
 
Paul Bird – Team Owner
“This has been one of the most enjoyable race weekends I’ve had in a long while. We started off with our Team presentation on Thursday evening with the new bike which was a big success and we’ve managed to continue that through to the rest of the weekend. When Tom hit third in Superpole two, it made my heart skip-a-beat and a row two start after Superpole three gave him the chance to be as competitive as he could be on the bike. He did a fantastic job from start to finish in both races and I’m really proud of the Teams achievements. Ian also did a great job this weekend and did more then what we asked of him. Overall I can fly home this evening feeling pretty happy for a change. Let’s hope we can continue the success until the end of the season. ”
 
Paul Risbridger – Team Manager
“It’s been a great weekend for the Team where we started with the new Kawasaki bike presentation on Thursday night. It was really exciting for us to present this to the media and key guests and I believe it created quite a buzz around the paddock with a lot of interest. This gave us a lift going into the weekend as we started Friday very strongly with Tom running in the top ten from the first session onwards. Tom put in a great performance during qualifying where we had the best performance for the year with a seventh on the grid. We topped that with two great races on Sunday with a fifth and a seventh from Tom and a twelfth from Ian. These results cemented this as our strongest weekend in World Superbikes. Ian did a great job stepping in for the first time at Nurburgring and great for him to get some points in the first race. He was just a bit unlucky to have slid off in the second race. We couldn’t have really asked for much more this weekend and it’s been a real boost for the guys towards the end of a long season and to begin our testing programme with the new bike.”
 
2010 Round 11Hannspree World Superbike Results

RACE 1:
1.      J. Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda)
2.      C. Checa (Althea Racing)
3.      C. Crutchlow (Yamaha Sterilgarda Team)
4.      M. Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia Racing)
5.      T. Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team)
6.      L. Haslam (Team Suzuki Alstare)
7.      R. Xaus (BMW Motorrad Motorsport)
8.      S. Guintoli (Team Suzuki Alstare)
9.      S. Byrne (Althea Racing)
10.     L. Scassa (Supersonic Racing Team)
12.     I. Lowry (Kawasaki Racing Team)
 
RACE 2:
1.      N. Haga (Ducati Xerox Team)
2.      J. Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda)
3.      L. Haslam (Team Suzuki Alstare)
4.      C. Crutchlow (Yamaha Sterilgarda Team)
5.      M. Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia Racing)
6.      S. Guintoli (Team Suzuki Alstare)
7.      T. Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team)
8.      J. Toseland (Yamaha Sterilgarda Team)
9.      R. Xaus (BMW Motorrad Motorsport)
10.    S. Byrne (Althea Racing)

Championship Leaders – Round 11
1.      M. Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia Racing) – 397 points
2.      L. Haslam (Team Suzuki Alstare) – 339 points
3.      J. Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) – 288 points

 
For further information on the Kawasaki Racing Team visit www.kawasaki-racingteam.eu <http://www.kawasaki-racingteam.eu>  and to register for further press information and images from the Teams bike unveiling you can visit www.press.kawasaki.eu <http://www.press.kawasaki.eu> . To follow the progress of the new 2011 Ninja ZX-10R machine visit www.kawasaki-challenge.com <http://www.kawasaki-challenge.com>

Kawasaki Racing Team is sponsored by Hotbodies Racing and uses our windscreens on all of their bikes. Hotbodies Racing specializes in manufacturing high-performance parts for high-performance sportbikes and is the market leader in Windscreens, Undertails, Huggers, Flush-Mount Signals, MGP and Megaphone Exhausts, and full-race Bodywork.  Hotbodies Racing supports the sport with sponsorships around the world, and encourages dealer and distributor inquiries.  For more information visit: www.hotbodiesracing.com