Rea, Lowes and Sykes tested this week with Kawasaki at Jerez

news7g12/04/2022

4 4 minutes read

Rea, Lowes and Sykes tested this week with Kawasaki at Jerez

Brief but positive KRT test

Team Kawasaki riders Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes hit the track with their Ninja ZX-10RR machines on Friday, December 2 to begin the important preparations for the World Championship. world FIM Superbike 2023.

The planned two-day test at the 4,423-kilometer Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto was shortened to half a day, on Friday afternoon, due to the previous wet weather. On a mostly dry track, both Lowes and Rea have done various test categories, just days after the end of the 2022 racing season.

Tom Sykes, the 2013 WorldSBK champion with Kawasaki, returned to the series with Kawasaki Puccetti Racing at this test, after a season of racing in the BSB. He also only raced in the last dry afternoon, but set a best lap time of 1’40,949 – just over a second ahead of the fastest racer.

2013 SBK World Champion Tom Sykes returns to Team Blue

In the final analysis, each driver has enough tracking time to form an opinion on the new items, with Rea finishing as the fastest racer with 1m39,911, placing in lap 39. over 50.

Jonathan Rea

“It’s a very worthwhile test as we have to make decisions about some ‘difficult’ parts of the season, so that we can start on a good note next year. We only have three or four of these important items to say yes or no. Cycling 2023 is good. There are some areas we need to improve, because we are still doing the early work, especially from the electronic side. But step by step, we will complete it together. The track was never perfect as there were still some wet patches but we were able to make some decisions. I am very happy to enter the season healthy and happy. I look forward to a few weeks now.”

Pere Riba – Team Leader of Jonathan Rea

“The test went smoothly, as we ended up doing only four hours. The weather is not nice; It rained all day on Thursday and it took a long time to dry out today, which means we have those four hours. We have something to test and get feedback from the riders, because it has to be developed in the winter time. Finally, we may collect information. Johnny is going very fast and we only use SC0 tires, a hard tyre, in the back. It was pretty consistent during lap times and we collected all the information we wanted. Now we just look forward to next year.”

Alex Lowes went on his first track this afternoon, on wet but dry track surfaces. He’ll also complete 50 laps in a single hectic afternoon, swapping between two bikes in the team’s new winter test colors.

Lowes was third fastest overall, with a best lap time of 1’40,342 despite the less than perfect track conditions.

Alex Lowe

“I felt fine riding even though the weather was a bit unfavorable for us on this test, meaning we were just on the right track on our final afternoon. When I started, the track was still pretty wet but we used this time to try out a few things that have nothing to do with overall performance. We had some new ideas for 2023, so I spent the next few hours testing out some new parts, with some positives and some negatives on the rear of the bike. The good thing is that we’ve been on a lot of laps, so we have plenty of information to try to piece everything together to create a good stepping stone for the late January test.“

Marcel Duinker – Team Leader of Alex Lowes

“During the day, we have a few key items that we’re trying to improve for next year. After this half-day test, we have a clear opinion on most items, which allows us to continue to improve for the January test. Completed this in just a few hours, we are very pleased. We didn’t touch the setup from Phillip Island, not a single click, and Alex was instantly quick and even more stable. We are very pleased with these test results. We can all go into the holiday season with a big smile on our faces.”

The next test for KRT riders will take place at the end of January 2023, again in Jerez.

2022 KRT Rider World SBK . Statistics

Jonathan Rea

World Champion 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020
2022: Race 36, Win 6, Platform 30, Super Pole 5
Number of race wins in career: 118 (103 for Kawasaki)
Career podium: 245 (203 for Kawasaki)
Career milestones: 40 (36 for Kawasaki)

Alex Lowe

2022: Race: 35, Win 0, Podium 4, Super pole 0
Career Race Victory: 2 (1 for Kawasaki)
Career podium: 33 (13 for Kawasaki)
Career milestones: 1 (0 for Kawasaki)

2022 KRT WorldSBK Statistics

8 x Drivers’ Championship (Scott Russell 1993, Tom Sykes 2013, Rea 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020), 1 x EVO Drivers’ Championship (David Salom 2014)
6 x Manufacturer’s Championship (Ninja ZX-10R 2015 & 2016, Ninja ZX-10RR 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020)
5 x Team Championships (KRT/Provec Racing 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019)