KRT, Kawasaki’s FIM Superbike World Championship squad, will face two final days of preseason testing on the all-new Ninja ZX-10R at Phillip Island in Australia before the season itself gets underway this coming weekend.

Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes are now looking forward to lapping the 4.445km Phillip Island circuit in Australia on Monday 22nd and Tuesday 23rd before the new look championship season kicks off for real with first practice on Friday 26th.

Both riders have tested their latest WorldSBK specification Ninja ZX-10Rs extensively in Europe this winter but the fast Phillip Island circuit now hosts the most significant tests of all, allowing the team to make real preparations for the first two points scoring races of the season.

With Rea the champion in 2015 and Sykes in 2013 KRT each rider knows that it takes to win the title outright and each will aim to do so again. Both Jonathan and Tom also know the importance of making a good start to the year - all of which make the results of the final test sessions more important than any previous winter outings.

KRT staff will use the final tests to make sure each rider is prepared to launch the latest assault on the championship by making the forthcoming days count towards the final results on Saturday and Sunday.

Jonathan Rea stated: 

“I am really excited for the start of the season because it has been a long winter with a lot of testing. Now we can start putting all the pieces of the jigsaw together to start making our race package. We are really happy because the bike is at a very good level and we have had some good tests. We have had some more time on the dyno to perfect our engine mapping. All the major test items we have tried out are underlined now and we can start focusing on performance. We will make a race simulation at some point and adjust the bike for a race set-up. We also need to start to be more specific with electronics. We will try to use the smile-a-mile philosophy and enjoy it too.”




Tom Sykes stated: 

“We need to look at fine-tuning the bike now. We have had a great winter testing programme and the new Ninja is working well. I feel more at one with the bike. We did a lot of good work in testing even before the Christmas break. All the information we have learned we will use to start to fine-tune our set up. We have two good days here to evaluate these small items. Overall, we are very much looking forward to the start because we have a good base already. We are at the right moment now to start racing. We’ll work on our package over race distance and in a correct manner. It is really very much fine-tuning now and that makes me feel very relaxed.”

Guim Roda, Team Manager KRT, stated: 

“This test is to confirm the direction we went in during the Jerez and Motorland tests. Here is the first chance to check things on another circuit. It is a very different one compared to the regular ones. The race weekend is close now so this is more of a special test than most. The riders need to check their lap times with the others and they have more pressure. We will use these two days to test some items and then it is go for the start of the season.”