Katsuaki Fujiwara and Chris Walker (GIL Kawasaki) both found their latest test sessions, at Phillip Island in Australia, immensely beneficial in getting to know the GIL team and the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R Supersport machine.

Fujiwara, coming into the team after a long and illustrious WSS career, and Walker, a class rookie but one of the most experienced riders in the SBK paddock, made great improvements in set-up across the three days, and ended up with highly respectable times in their first big test against their new peer group. Fujiwara set a time of 1’35.6, while Walker was only one tenth of a second off.

Neither rider pushed hard on the first two days, but despite temperatures which sometimes hit 38°C on the last day, ultimate lap times were still improved.

Katsuaki Fujiwara: “This is still a new bike and a new team for me so we spent the first two days working hard with the geometry and suspension set-up, so it was not always possible to go full gas. At the end of day two we made a big improvement with the front fork and that meant I was able to do a lot of fast laps. I have not been focussing on one fast lap because consistency is the key as it is the last five laps of the race that are the most important ones.”

Chris Walker: “I’ve still got a lot to learn but I’m really enjoying it. Having three days at a track like Phillip Island has been so worthwhile and I feel that I’m riding the bike much better now than when I first arrived. I’m a lot more relaxed and doing a 15 lap run on the final day felt a lot easier than doing seven laps on day one. The only thing I’m annoyed about is that I didn’t really push for a lap time on day two when the conditions were a bit cooler. But that’s not the end of the world as we’ve ended up pretty close, especially on a race run.”

The WSS season starts at the same time and venue as the SBK class, at Qatar on 23 February.