Kawasaki will again be a genuine World Superbike contender in 2010, according to new factory signing Chris Vermeulen. The Australian, who returns to WSB after four years in MotoGP, was encouraged by the progress he made in his first serious run on the ZX-10R in Spain last week.
Chris Vermeulen Speaks…
"It was a really positive test at Cartagena," said Vermeulen. "I now have a good base set-up and a solid platform to work from for the rest of the pre-season. For sure there’s still a lot of work to be done, and I certainly wouldn’t be challenging right at the front if the championship was starting now. I’m under no illusions how hard it’s going to be in 2010, but the goal is to get this thing up the front and I’ll be doing all I can to make that happen."
For their 2010 WSB attack with Vermeulen and their other new signing Tom Sykes, Kawasaki have also committed to a quantum leap in resources. "At the test, there were existing engineers, and they were joined by people from Hayate (Kawasaki’s former MotoGP team) and engineers from Japan, which was great. They all started to gel together really well, which is going to be a great thing for me and Tom in the long-term."
Kawasaki have two more Spanish tests scheduled before Christmas: at Almeria on December 18-19, then another two-days at Jerez on December 21-22.
