Two days of extensive testing are underway at the sunny circuit of Almería, Spain to prepare the all-new Kawasaki Superbike Racing Team and Kawasaki Motocard.com team for the 2009 racing season. Conditions in the most southern part of Spain are favourable to both the teams as well as the riders; a bright blue sky and temperatures rising to about 15 degrees in the afternoon facilitate thorough testing of the new racing materials. The Kawasaki Superbike Racing Team are getting acquainted with the Ninja ZX-10R and the Kawasaki Motocard.com team fire up the brand new 2009 Ninja ZX-6R. Two new riders were welcomed to this first official Kawasaki test: former WSS and now WSBK rider Broc Parkes (AUS) and WSS rider Joan Lascorz (SPA), both showing delight in having a go on their new bikes. Parkes is determined to get to grips with the Ninja ZX-10R before the season starts and this job is made a little bit more easy for him as he receives information and help from his experienced team-mate Makoto Tamada, who is going into his second season on the Ninja ZX-10R. Lascorz, the very talented Spanish revelation of the 2008 WSS season is showing an overwhelming enthusiasm to get the most out of his new bike and certainly his well-experienced veteran team-mate Katsuaki Fujiwara can teach him a trick or two. Both riders are working closely together to make adaptation to the new Ninja ZX-6R as quick and and easy as possible. Both teams are sharing their pitboxes in a joint effort to create team spirit and synergy between them and to get to know one another. Important factory support is being provided on the spot in the form of Kawasaki engineers bringing expertise and special race kit parts to the table. After this two-day test, more testing will be done in the weeks to come, to make sure the kick-off of the 2009 racing season will be a success for all involved. The next official test, organised by the World Championship series organiser FGSport, will be held from January the 23rd until January the 25th at the new Portimao track in Portugal. This will be the first showdown of our Kawasaki racing teams in the face of all other competing manufacturers in the World Championships.