Kawasaki WSB / WSS Valencia test

[MadKaw]

Tamada Top Ten After Valencia Tests
Newsflash, 14 March 2008
Makoto Tamada (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse) made great advances in finding a good race set-up for his 2008 specification machine, after a busy two days at the official tests in Valencia, Spain. Régis Laconi (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse) had a less happy time on his machine, working hard but not finding the same degree of improvement as his team-mate. Laconi was, however, very close to Tamada in terms of his single best lap time, with Tamada setting a 1’35.591 and Laconi a 1’35.740.

Valencia hosts the third round of what is now a 14-round Championship on April 6, when the Superstock classes join the Superbike and Supersport teams for their first round of the season.

Makoto Tamada: “Most of our time was spent working on revised chassis settings, and we got through a lot of things. I felt an improvement from our new swingarm and it gave me a better feeling. We had a bit less chattering and our brake control was good. The engine was the same spec as before but we tried a new engine braking system and traction control settings. We didn’t try a long run but the tyre feeling was definitely better this time.”

Régis Laconi: “We lost some time in this test and I can’t say I am completely happy with the bike settings around here. We are getting a lot of chatter when leaning into right hand corners. We tried our best and we worked through a lot of things. We found out a lot of things so for the race I am sure we will be more ready.”



Fujiwara Makes a Set-up Breakthrough
Newsflash, 14 March 2008
Katsuaki Fujiwara (GIL Kawasaki) used revised suspension settings on his Ninja ZX-6R to set the fifth best official testing time out of 19 riders at the tight and twisty Valencia circuit. The current lap record holder in race conditions at Valencia secured a best of 1’37.572 on his way to a top five place. He would have posted an even faster time but the session was red flagged near the end, and the final few minutes of testing were cancelled.

Chris Walker (GIL Kawasaki) set a best time of 1’37.872 on the first day of the test and had a challenging second day, despite finishing well inside the top half of the rankings.

Katsuaki Fujiwara: “I found a new direction in the settings and I am quite happy about the results of this test. We had better feel from the front as well. I would have set a faster time I think, but there was a red flag when I was on my fastest lap and then the session was ended. When we tested at the first two tracks, Qatar and Phillip Island, we found a good set-up but when we got there for the race, the track temperature was completely different - and the bike felt completely different. But today we had good performance even as the track temperature changed. That was the most important thing for us and the biggest improvement we have made. We have improved things a lot and found a good way for the future.”

[Zoidberg]

I can't help but think that Kawasaki have hampered their own development by running the 2007 bikes with the Pedercini team. Surely they wouldn't be any slower on satellite 08 bikes and it would have to help improve the new model by running more bikes. We really seem to be where Zook were during the nineties, making very good production bikes but struggling to build them into a competitive racebike. Hopefully it can be turned around soon.