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The official race report service of Kawasaki Racing Team.

13 Október 2018

Ninja Spirit Delivers A Fourth Manufacturers’ Title

After Jonathan Rea (KRT) secured his most recent race win at the San Juan Villicum circuit in Argentina the points he scored were enough to ensure that Kawasaki would win the 2018 Manufacturers’ Championship with three races to spare.

In addition to the points Rea has now contributed to the overall Kawasaki score this season Assen race winner Tom Sykes (KRT) and two time podium rider Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) have also been the top scoring Kawasaki riders in a particular race, at different stages of the season.
 
Rea has taken 15 wins on the Ninja ZX-10RR this year, as part of his total of 20 podium finishes. Sykes has scored one race win and seven podiums all in, and rookie Razgatlioglu gathered in his second career podium in WorldSBK, with third place in race one at Villicum.
 
The bulk of the Kawasaki’s points have been scored most recently, as part of Rea’s magnificent record-equalling run of nine consecutive race wins - from race one at Laguna Seca in June to the first ever race held in Argentina in mid October.
 
The early season was a tough challenge for all the Kawasaki riders, after regulation changes cut the allowable maximum engine revs more than any other inline four-cylinder manufacturer. In overcoming this early season unknown quantity KHI, their teams and riders have used their combined Ninja Spirit to their very best advantage to make it four titles in a row for both Rea and Kawasaki.
 
Three races remain in 2018, offering up more opportunities for Kawasaki to add to the impressive list of records and totals already achieved with the Ninja ZX-10RR.
 
Guim Roda, KRT Team Manager, stated: “This Manufacturers’ Championship means a lot. We faced the first challenge to make the 2018 ZX-10RR competitive, due to difficulties in the technical rules, but everybody worked hard to make bike competitive. Tom and Jonathan have been working at a great level - Toprak also. With two podiums he is proving that the package, well managed, can be competitive. We want to say thank you for the support of all our suppliers and for sure the KHI staff who support our efforts every day.”
 
Manuel Puccetti, Kawasaki Puccetti Racing Team Principal, stated: “We are very proud to be 20 years into our racing history with Kawasaki. This season we made our contribution to the WorldSBK Manufacturers’ Championship that was confirmed today. We are very happy about this. We will do our best to continue to make good result for the rest of this season and next season. We did a good job, the Kawasaki is an incredible machine and together with Toprak we reached our second podium of the season today. This is amazing and we are very happy. So we want to say thank you to everyone involved; Kawasaki, our sponsors and all our crew.”
 
Kawasaki WorldSBK Statistics (As of race one at Villicum)
 
6 x Riders’ Championships (Scott Russell 1993, Sykes 2013, Rea 2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018), 1 x EVO Riders’ Championship (David Salom 2014)
4 x Manufacturers’ Championships (Ninja ZX-10R 2015 & 2016, Ninja ZX-10RR 2017 & 2018)
3 x Teams’ Championships (KRT/Provec Racing 2015, 2016 & 2017)
 
Kawasaki FIM Superbike World Championship Statistics
Total Kawasaki Race Wins: 125 – 16 in 2018
Total Kawasaki Podiums: 377 – 29 in 2018
Total Kawasaki Poles: 80 – 7 in 2018
 
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