Home Test Next For KRT
KRT riders Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani will soon take part in a two day Supported Test session at the team’s home venue of the Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya, between 14-15 March. These sessions will help the team to fully prepare for the second round of the championship, which will be held at the same venue one week after the tests conclude.
After the dramatic opening round at Phillip Island in Australia, in which Lowes and KRT delivered two outstanding wins, the entire team turns its attentions to a supported test at what is their true home venue. The 4.657km long Barcelona – Catalunya Circuit, also known as Montmeló, is located just a few hundred yards from KRT’s European HQ.
Lowes arrives at the forthcoming test in a strong championship lead after scoring two famous Phillip Island race wins against a very high quality field while competing on the latest WorldSBK spec Ninja ZX-10RR. He and his crew will have a different task to concentrate on at this test, with no points up for grabs but some important track time available for all to hone their machinery and race setups.
Axel Bassani took part in his first race weekend with KRT at Phillip Island. Despite finding some misfortune on the way he scored points in each main race and learned his most important lessons yet about his new bike and official team.
Catalunya has a very long straight but in many ways it is a very different circuit from Phillip Island, making this test an important one to keep the strong early season momentum going when the next round takes place between 22-24 March.
Alex Lowes, stated: “Our target for the test is to keep working on both the performance and race pace of the bike, while keeping our grip for longer than we could last year with both front and rear tyres. Montmeló itself has a layout that I really enjoy and being close to the team’s workshop, it’s like a second home race. I’m excited to get back together with the crew after a couple of weeks at home, have some fun and see if we can improve our package ready for the Barcelona – Catalunya races the week after.”
Axel Bassani, stated: “After the first race weekend of the season for sure the confidence with the bike will be better at this test. We have a lot of work to do and we will try to find a better set-up for race weekend. We also hope to have consistent track conditions all the way through. We have some new ideas to try and we will see how they work. I am happy to have two more days to test on track with KRT shortly before their home race weekend. It will be important to do a good job and have good results. We will try to enjoy it and push as much as possible to reach our goals.”
Guim Roda, KRT Team Manager, stated: “After a very good start to the WorldSBK season in Australia, we will continue now that we are back in Europe. We know the Montmeló and then the Assen race weekends will be very important rounds for us. This incredible opportunity to prepare for the next race during this Supported Test will help us understand the direction to go in. We still have to find some improvements on the bike set-up, so let’s see in the next two days of testing how it all works out. Hopefully we can make another step to secure good bike set-up for our KRT riders and Kawasaki Puccetti Racing as well.”
Tito Rabat (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) will join the KRT duo at the Barcelona – Catalunya test, once more riding his KRT-prepared Ninja ZX-10RR machine.
