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The official race report service of Kawasaki Racing Team.

27 juli 2018

Team Green Kawasaki trio work for Suzuka 8Hr win

Team Green Kawasaki Riders, Jonathan Rea, Leon Haslam and Kazuma Watanabe ended day two of track action at Suzuka with the second fastest combined time, ahead of Sunday’s 8Hr Endurance Race.

Current FIM Superbike World Champion Jonathan Rea has been on stunning form, posting fastest times on both days.  It was capped off today when he recorded a circuit best lap time of 2m 05.156 in the second Qualifying Practice session. 
 
Frustratingly Friday saw most of the track sessions punctuated by red flag delays meaning none of the riders were able to put together a full session until night practice at the end of the day.  Leon Haslam backed up a strong performance from day one by topping the time sheets in his QP2 session while Kazuma Watanabe used most of the sessions to get comfortable with the set up of the Ninja ZX-10RR race machine. By the second qualifying session he looked comfortable and was posting his fastest times of the event so far.
 
Team Green – sponsored by Kawasaki Motors Japan - will go into the Top Ten Qualifying shoot out on Saturday confident of claiming a good grid position for Sunday’s race.  However, after the remarkably hot temperatures at the start of the week there is the potential for a typhoon to hit the Mie Prefecture of Japan where the Suzuka circuit is located.  With that in mind the schedule for track activities on Saturday is under review.
 
The 41st running of the Suzuka 8Hr race will take place at 15:30 on Sunday (local time) with Team Green Kawasaki pushing hard for the win.
 
Quotes from riders
 
Rea – fastest lap:
“The lap felt good. Honestly speaking it just came sort of automatic. There was nothing, no big warnings… as soon as I got through Degner one the brake was in a good position, the engine braking was working well then I realised I could really race the bike to the end of the lap. In time split 2 and 3 is where I profited from the new tyre. When I saw the lap time I was really happy, I could not really believe it because my expectation was to do that in Superpole – to try for a 2 minute 5 in Superpole - but to do it in official practice makes me really happy”.
 
Haslam – fastest in group:
“We’ve just done qualifying and gone through quickest as a team. It felt pretty good. My first run was on used tyres so I am happy with the times we did in the end. I got a reasonably new tyre for the second session and I ended up quickest in my group so I am pretty happy. As a team we are working well together and the bike balance is quite good. Now really looking forward to tomorrow and seeing what this predicted tornado is going to do. It may cancel tomorrow’s proceedings but looking like the weather will clear by Sunday”.
 
Watanabe – up to speed:
“We are getting better and better. I did a long run today and found the optimal setting in the morning. In qualifying practice I was not able to enjoy the new tyre because of a red flag. After that the dense traffic blocked me. It is a shame as I wanted to achieve a better lap time. But thanks to both Jonathan and Leon the team got pole position and we all contributed towards the team’s average lap time. I have no idea how the approaching typhoon will affect us tomorrow but I must overcome all difficulty to catch up with Jonathan and Leon.