MSS Discovery Kawasaki Racing suffered mixed fortunes over the weekend of the official Bennetts British Superbike test at Snetterton in Norfolk. While Stuart Easton sat near the top of the timings on his Ninja ZX-6R, team-mate Michael Rutter suffered a monumental high-side on his Ninja ZX-10R during the first day and it was only thanks to a Herculean effort from the team which allowed his testing to continue. Michael’s test was later blighted by fuelling issues that the team will be working hard to cure in the weeks leading up to the first round.
Michael Rutter, Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R “I had a massive high-side – a big one on the sighting lap of all things. I went out and must have hit some oil or something. I wasn’t going quick, but it was quick enough. The next thing I know I was in the air doing more than 80mph! I’ve never been so high – I probably showed up on radar at RAF Marham down the road! I got away with it, but the bike didn’t. After that, what can I say about the team? They took the bike back to team HQ, straightened it out and worked on it all night. They finally finished at 4am. Amazing. Fuelling is our major problem at the moment and until we get that sorted, it’s difficult to work on the chassis settings. As far as times go, sure we’re disappointed being 12th but for this stage of development this is what I’m expecting. Thing is we can only improve. We’ve got a tough few early-season meetings, but when we get the direction we need, we’ll be there.”
Stuart Easton, Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R “It was a very positive test for us and it was nice to be at the top of the times on race tyres. We've lost most of the chatter that was affecting me at the previous tests and I think I'm gelling well now with the four-cylinder Kawasaki. Yet again the team have been magnificent during this test and now I think we're all looking forward to that first race of the season at Brands Hatch.”
Nick Morgan, Team owner“With Michael, our biggest issue is a fuelling problem and at the moment this is taking precious time away from our chassis development. To be fair to us, another Kawasaki superbike team is having similar problems. This is frustrating, but we will schedule a test somewhere to work through these issues. Poor fuelling upsets handling and we need a good, linear power curve. And when you’re talking 200bhp plus, it can be very hard to tame! On the plus side Stuart was probably the quickest really on race tyres on the ZX-6R. We’ve eradicated some of the chatter, which has made him happy. If it wasn’t so windy we reckon he could have been quicker still. Overall for both riders we’re happy with our progress and confident that we can sort the fuelling on Michael’s bike.”
Stuart Simmonds, joint team owner“For the team to work so hard to get Michael up-and-running again after almost destroying his Ninja ZX-10R is a testament to the amazing team spirit that we have. Despite problems with the Superbike, morale is still sky-high. We know we’re up against it, but I think that with a few meetings under our belts we’ll be in the running. Stuart is progressing well on the Supersport bike and we’re hopeful of some good, early results from him. We’ll work hard now to ensure that we’re as ready as we can be for the first race of the season at Brands Hatch over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend.”
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