Kawasaki continues big bang testing

The Kawasaki Racing Team completed another intensive day of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya on Saturday. Riders Shinya Nakano, Alex Hofmann and Kazuki Shimizu completed a total of 160 laps in the build-up to the opening race of the season at Jerez on April 10.

Nakano continued to focus on Kawasaki's new big bang Ninja ZX-RR engine, which only made its public track debut at the February Sepang test in Malaysia. The 27-year-old Japanese rider also evaluated new front and rear tyres from Kawasaki's tyre partner Bridgestone.

"This was a very hard day, with a lot of tyre testing and trying to sort out some problems with the engine braking system on the new big bang motor," said Nakano after posting the 11th fastest time. "The bike is unstable on corner entry, so I have to ride around that, and this makes it hard work on the bike."/p> "One of the new Bridgestone rear tyres I tried was very good, with excellent side grip, and this helped me do my fast lap. The 2005 ZX-RR has a lot of potential, but I'll be happier when I'm going faster."

Hofmann's main programme was tyre testing with the latest generation of compounds and constructions aboard his Ninja ZX-RR fitted with the standard 'screamer' motor. Hofmann will switch to the big bang engine specification for today's final day of testing at Catalunya.

Technical Director Ichiro Yoda explained: "The big bang engine concept has a character that is different from the even firing order of the 'screamer' and this produces the corner entry problems that Shinya is experiencing. This test has helped us to understand the problem and we are working on a solution, but this will not be available for testing until next month."