After having to wait 40 minutes extra for their race to take place because of track repairs the Kawasaki GIL Kawasaki WSS competitors each ended their Spanish race weekend in the points.
Chris Walker was disappointed after qualifying 14th on the grid, but made up places as he found that he suffered from less problems with the Valencia track surface than some other riders. He was even as low as 16th until he found his confidence and then he had an inspired ride to ninth.
Starting from fifth on the grid, Katsuaki Fujiwara gradually slipped down the order to finish 11th, losing grip as he went after choosing a too soft tyre.
Walker is now 12th in the championship rankings, in 16 points, with Fujiwara 20th, largely thanks to a no score in the PI race. The next WSS race will take place at Assen, on April 27.
Chris Walker: “It all went well on Friday but I struggled on Saturday so I’m chuffed to come away with a top ten. The bike was really good but it was just the front tyre that really went off after about ten laps. Front grip has been my problem all year but to be honest I think everyone was struggling with that today apart from the top four, who seemed to be in a different race. From about half race distance everyone was struggling but my problem didn’t really get any worse.”
Katsuaki Fujiwara:
“We opted for a soft tyre because we had already tried it over distance. In the race it was not great for grip, and the hard tyre already gave us a lot of slides when we tried it. The biggest problem was the front tucking in the race, it happened many times and was impossible to control. But we scored some points, our best points of the year so far.”
