Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Racing veteran Tom Kipp will finish out the 2003 Parts Canada Superbike Championship with the Kawasaki Canada factory team.

Kipp made the announcement at Mid-America Motorplex, where Kipp is serving in his other role as MRO Chaplain for the Formula USA National series.

When Kawasaki’s Owen Weichel broke his arm testing at Sears Point, Kipp was called by Kawasaki Canada’s Dale Rathwell to join the team for the season opener at Shannonville.

“They called me up and asked if I would be interested in coming up and running just at Shannonville. I said, ‘Yeah, of course!’ I really wanted to work with Dale again,” said Kipp. Kipp worked with Rathwell during the best years of his AMA Superbike career, in the early-to-mid-1990s.

Kipp said once at Shannonville he was surprised by the “laid-back atmosphere” of the series but impressed with the competition, how seriously the Kawasaki team took its racing and was very happy with his motorcycle, an ex-Akira Yanagawa works ZX-7RR.

“I was immediately impressed with the Superbike. I got off it with a smile on my face that never left all weekend. The bike was so easy to ride. It was very user-friendly. It’s got good power, but the chassis works wonderfully.”

Kipp was running third in the Superbike race until he made two mistakes that dropped him to sixth. Kipp attributes the mistakes to being rusty after not having ridden “anything since August (2002).”

Based on his performance at the Shannonville event, Kipp said he was asked to complete the series in the Superbike class with a possibility of some 600cc rides in the Canadian Sport Bike class. Kipp accepted the offer.

Kipp also said that only one Canadian Superbike round would conflict with his Formula USA schedule, and MRO would most likely send another Chaplain in his place for that race.