New direction continues for Kawasaki

Wednesday, 20 August 2008

Kawasaki continued their upward momentum at Brno with a pleasing post-race test from riders Anthony West and John Hopkins.

Kawasaki will reflect positively on their visit to the Czech Republic, with their best collective result of the season, a new direction confirmed with the Ninja ZX-RR and –according to Marco Melandri- their rider lineup for 2009 sewn up. `Team Green´stayed on for testing on Monday and Tuesday, with positive developments that the MotoGP outfit feel will aid further improvement this season.

`We have mainly evaluated different engine and chassis settings at this test, along with some new specification components for the Ninja ZX-RR,´ explained Kawasaki Technical Manager Naoya Kaneko after Tuesday´s final laps of the Brno circuit.

Aside from five laps on Monday, the team were testing without rider John Hopkins due to the Anglo-American having displaced an intercostal muscle in a weekend tumble. Hopkins´condition does not put his participation at the next round at Misano in doubt, and most of his work could be handled by regular rider Anthony West and tester Olivier Jacque.

`It was unfortunate that John was unable to ride because of the injury he is carrying, but we've gathered a lot of data from both Olivier and Anthony,´ continued Kaneko. `We´ve definitely got a new direction with the machine and both riders have seen improvements with the set-up of their bikes throughout the time they were on track. Anthony made adjustments to his chassis set-up and adapted his riding style to suit a particular front tyre, which hopefully will now be an option for us to use in the future. We will now refer all of the information we have gathered back to the factory, so we can continue with our development.´

Whilst West focused his attention on a rarely-used Bridgestone front tyre, Jacque worked on base chassis settings, a new swing arm and electronic parts. The former 250cc World Champion and MotoGP competitor has been evaluating the ZX-RR in a number of testing opportunities this season, and is the only Kawasaki rider to have undertaken laps of the new Indianapolis circuit that debuts on the MotoGP calendar this year.