Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Racing Team) enjoyed his first ride on the 2011 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R racebike in Spain recently and he was joined on track by Kawasaki WSS riders Broc Parkes and David Salom. Joan was impressed by his new machine and enjoyed his transition to a new racing class, having been a championship contender for Kawasaki in the Supersport World Championship category this year. Despite suffering multiple injuries in a crash in early August, Joan finished third overall and is now almost back to full fitness. Joan completed his first Superbike test with his initial goals all achieved and at a steadily increasing pace as he prepares for his first season of WSBK competition in 2011. Only the weather was an issue at times, leaving Joan and his crew having to wait for windows of clear conditions to arrive each day. Alongside Joan, Broc Parkes and David Salom from the Provec Motocard.com Kawasaki Supersport World Championship team, also tested the latest developments on their Ninja ZX-6R race machines. The sessions were finally completed on Friday 3 December, with both Salom and Parkes able to make progress towards finding a strong base set-up. Joan Lascorz: “I felt very good at this test but I must get a little more strength back to push the bike to his limits. My first impression of the bike is very positive and it delivers power in a good way. On the first day I made a few laps, on the second day a few more and on the last day I felt much happier, and did even more laps than before. I had a much better feeling from the bike also. For the moment I have to ride around my lack of strength but otherwise it all went OK. I have a few weeks to go before the Sepang test so I am working on improving my condition to let me go faster on the bike. For sure I will be ready for the first race.” WSS Riders Broc Parkes: “We had to take a couple of extra days of testing, and we only got a few hours each day in any case. It was windy and sometimes rainy, but we got to test the 2011 spec machine, which we had set out to do. The only trouble was that it was really cold, so you could only push so far in those conditions. We got a good base set-up for the next tests but the conditions were a little bit difficult at this one.” David Salom: “Our test was very good, despite the weather. We worked a lot on the set-up and everybody seemed happy, so we have a good feeling already as we approach next year. The weather always changed, rain, wind, dry – very mixed – but we made some progress which was the point of having the test.”