Kawasaki Racing Team Launch In Barcelona Proves To Be A Great Success
Newsflash, 30 January 2014
The official launch of the Kawasaki Racing Team SBK took place on Thursday 30th January in Barcelona, with the latest Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R and the competing KRT riders on display to the media.
SBK riders Tom Sykes and Loris Baz were joined by new SBK Evo rider David Salom, with their 2014 machines painted in striking and distinctive new colour schemes.
After Tom Sykes won the championship for Kawasaki in 2013, the media interest was particularly strong at the launch held in the unique Pabello Mies van der Rohe in the centre of Barcelona.
The 2014 season is a particularly important one for the Kawasaki family as it marks the 30th Anniversary of the Ninja model line, and this 30th of January event was the perfect way to start the celebrations of Kawasaki’s trademark supersport range of machines.
As well as the riders, a number of special guests and other team members made speeches during the launch, including Javier Alonso, Managing Director of Dorna WSBK, Shigemi Tanaka of Kawasaki Motors Europe, Steve Guttridge KME Racing Manager, KRT Marketing Manager Biel Roda and Team Manager Guim Roda.
Shigemi Tanaka, Kawasaki Motors Europe: “I am happy to say that not only do we enter 2014 as champions in Superbike, but also we look forward to celebrating 30 years of the famous Ninja brand as the year unfolds. We wish all of our Kawasaki World Superbike team sponsors, and those engaged in support for the KRT Provec team, good luck and good fortune in the year ahead.”
Steve Guttridge, KME Racing Manager: “We are 100% committed to winning the World Superbike title again. As you already know, we are now looking to the future of WSBK and making an extra commitment via our development of a new SBK Evo rules machine within the 2014 Championship, with the highly talented Spaniard David Salom on board the Evo SBK Ninja ZX-10R.”
Biel Roda, KRT Marketing Manager: “This launch is a form of thank you to everybody for helping the team and there are so many people involved in that. The riders, our technical people, suppliers, Kawasaki and so many more people than just those ones. This event is to explain to these people just how big this project is. We made this event in this beautiful building because it is very clean in design, very simple but also very strong. It is like a metaphor for our team.”
Tom Sykes: “It is great to be here in Barcelona at the 2014 launch.
I do not even need to look at the bike to know what it is because it is engraved in my memory. I have shared a lot of great times with this Ninja ZX-10R and I know we can be competitive again. We have had some really good tests in the off-season even though I did not feel at my full potential. I am excited and even more motivated than last year to start racing again.”
Loris Baz: “We know that on Fridays and Saturdays we have to improve in practice and qualifying. In the races I am always strong but the nearer you start to the front row the better it is. The target for me is to start in the two front rows each time, and then try to go with the leading guys. If I can start well I am sure I can be with those guys in front in the races. We have already made a big step with the bike set up in testing this winter. It looks really good this year with more white on the fairing so it will look different from some of the other bikes.”
David Salom: “I am very pleased and proud to be riding the SBK Evo bike for the official Kawasaki Racing Team. Because I will ride the Evo machine it will not be like the full Superbikes of Tom and Loris but I hope to be at the head of the Evo race each time. I am happy to be in the Kawasaki family again.”