Kawasaki World Supersport squad ready for round one

GIL Kawasaki riders Katsuaki Fujiwara and Chris Walker have good reason to be confident going into the first race of the 2008 World Supersport season, having only recently completed a positive test at the 5.380km Losail Circuit with their Ninja ZX-6R machines.

With both riders on the pace over a single timed lap, and putting in strong performances on race tyres, the new riding line up in the GIL team has already proven itself adept at learning the character and personality of the ZX-6R, and now the entire team aims to qualify well, and then race even better come Saturday 23rd, date of the first race of the 14-round season.

Unlike the Superbike class, the WSS category will not be racing at the new venue of Miller Motorsport Park in America in June, hence their Supersport season will count one less round than the bigger displacement machines. Also unlike Superbike, the World Supersport competitors only have one race per weekend, making each individual performance count all the more.

Fujiwara, like his team-mate Walker, is a new rider in the GIL set-up this year but unlike Chris ‘Kats’ is one of the most experienced competitors in the entire Supersport division. He has an enviable record at Losail. He won the first ever WSS race to be held in Qatar, in 2005, and last year scored a podium finish in third. More of the same would be a great start with his new team, which scored podiums and a glorious race win (at Phillip Island) last year.

Walker is a real class rookie in World Supersport, having never competed even in 600cc national racing in his early career, making the leap from 250GP-style machinery to Superbike in one bound. The proven World Superbike winner in Kawasaki colours is out to repeat that experience on the big Ninja just as soon as possible.

Like the World Superbike riders, the World Supersport competitors will have their second round of the season at Phillip Island, on 2 March.

Katsuaki Fujiwara: “We know we are ready to face the season after our recent tests in Qatar. We could lap at a high pace without great difficulty, we could match our set-up to the tyres we had available. In general we worked well together. We just need to keep that going into the race weekend and I hope to have another good Supersport experience in Qatar.”

Chris Walker: “I have lots of experience of Superbike racing but riding the Supersport bike is like a different discipline. The testing I have had has been like going back to school in some ways. But we’ve worked hard to improve and we did it in the last test here. I was very pleased to be so close to Katsuaki in that test, even if he helped me a lot! I’m really excited now that the first round is coming along, I want it to be a great experience, and it couldn’t come on a better track, because I love the Losail layout; it’s so fast and flowing.”