The Kawasaki Racing Team trio of Loris Baz, Tom Sykes and David Salom completed a three day test at Jerez in Spain, with Baz finishing up second fastest and Sykes very close behind his team mate in third

As well as completing work on the never-ending development programme of the official Ninja ZX-10R, in both full Superbike and SBK Evo specifications, the team also evaluated some new tyres from championship sole supplier Pirelli.

With the second round of the championship at Motorland Aragon looming this test was also a useful opportunity to get the riders back into track mode after the long break since the opening round.

The first two days of the tests were dry, if often windy, and the full SBK side of the team made the most of the opportunity to post strong lap times, under the existing lap and circuit best records. Tom and Loris also found set-up improvements in the areas of electronics, suspension set-up and overall balance of their machinery.

The team had some time to step back from track action halfway through day two, as on-track filming began, but they got a final hour of intense action on a dry track action afterwards to try out the new Pirelli qualifying tyre.

Despite the relative lack of testing time because of the day two filming, Loris and Tom used their laps to the full on the first two days, with Tom continuing to ride on day three. When the heaviest rains of the final day fell in the afternoon Tom and his team worked hard on improving the rain set-up of the Ninja ZX-10R and found real benefits on full wet tyres.

Salom fell early on day one but continued to test despite pain from his often injured right hand, evaluating some electronic and data recording upgrades to his SBK Evo machine. He lost some track time on day one after he went for a medical check-up and was limited in his final lap count because of pain and related lack of stamina in his throttle hand on day two. He did not ride on the final day. He and his team were still able to glean useful information from the test, in preparation for what is already proving to be a competitive season in the Evo class.

With testing plans now complete until a single day of action immediately after the fourth round of the championship at Imola in May, the next outing for the KRT effort will be in race mode at the second round of the championship, which will be held at Motorland Aragon in Spain between April 11 and 13.


Loris Baz:

“We did our riding on the first two days really and we did nearly everything we had to do, so we did not need to ride today. The weather was too changeable for most of the time. The feeling on the second day was really good and we managed to do some good lap times and finished second fastest of all. I lost a little bit on each of my fastest laps on Tuesday or I could have gone a bit faster. I did a 1’41.1 lap with a race tyre, so I am really happy with this test. We have a few ideas where we can improve again. We lost a little bit in the fast corners and we gained a lot in the slower corners, but I am sure we can find a good mix of both those things for the next race in Aragon.”

Tom Sykes:

“I have definitely done a lot of laps and even today in the wet. Overall we have been fine-tuning the bike and feel that we have been heading in the right direction. Even in the dry conditions here there were high winds to contend with but having said that, our consistency has been good. We got lucky with the first two days of dry weather as well. Things have been more promising and it looks as if we have found some more speed in the wet, which is nice. It is something we had to compromise on in the past when we improved our dry set-up but now we have a very good feeling with the Ninja ZX-10R in all conditions. I felt very comfortable in the full wet when it finally managed to rain. I feel our hard work has paid off and with the limitations in testing and track time this year it has been good to get some wet laps under my belt.”

David Salom:

“A very difficult test because I had a crash on the first day, about an hour after I started. I do not think I broke anything but I had a lot of pain in my hand, so now I go to Barcelona to see my specialist, Dr. Mir. I have had many broken bones in my hand in the past so the checks I had during the test are inconclusive. As it was raining on the final day of the test I did not ride.”

Pere Riba, Loris Baz’s Crew Chief:

“We had a list of items to try after the last test here and also the Australian test and race, although we already had good pace with the bike. We worked on improving pace over race distance and to make our parameters a bit wider in the first two days. We made another small step in the right direction. We keep working with Loris to try and improve the base settings a little bit. Today it was not wet and not dry for most of the day, so it can be dangerous and you do not learn that much about the overall set-up because the track changes every five minutes. You cannot work on your base in these changing conditions and we have a race in ten days. We also tried some new tyres, including a new qualifying tyre from Pirelli, and we tried a new front race tyre. We made a long run on a new rear suspension settings and all was very good. On a qualifier Loris was second fastest, he was fast over one lap on a race tyre too, and then his pace over a long distance was good also.”

Marcel Duinker, Tom Sykes’ Crew Chief:

“It has been a very good and efficient test before the season restarts. We had three days and we used them to our full potential. We made around 265 laps with Tom in total. We worked in both dry and then finally wet conditions on the points we needed to improve. In the last two years sometimes in the wet we could not find our best possible bike balance. But in this short time on the final day in wet conditions we were able to identify improvements. In the dry conditions we just fine-tuned our set-up. Our base bike was already at a very good level so we just worked on some details.”

Toni Alfosea, David Salom’s Crew Chief:

“Our starting plan was to get David back on the bike again after more than one month without riding on track. We did not change many things after the good results in Australia, just the overall gearing for this track, but after 15 laps David fell and we had to make a new plan. We did not have so many things to try but as David could ride again we tested the new telemetry system we have to record data, so we started working on things that we usually do not get time to do in practice. All the team has worked a lot and put in some late nights, so it was possible to put all the new electronics for the data on the bike. Now it is practically ready, only some work to do on the new dashboard, but the telemetry is starting to work. We got some good information from the second day of the test so the electronics is maybe now 80 – 90% ready for the start of practice at Aragon.”

.