Chris Walker described his Assen performance as his best race of the year so far, as he took his Kawasaki GIL Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R to 12th place, less than five seconds from winner Andrew Pitt.
Walker, who had qualified only 20th, got a good start and was 14th at the end of lap one, latching onto the second group of riders behind the leading eight. He had made good progress with his machine set up in race conditions and felt confident throughout the race.
Katsuaki Fujiwara, 18th in qualifying, was disappointed to find his raceday set-up affected by chatter, and he slid down the order before pulling in after 14 laps.
Walker is now 11th in the championship rankings, with 20 points, Fujiwara is 20th, with six points.
The next WSS race, round four, will take place at Monza, May 11th.
Chris Walker: “That's the best I have ridden the bike all year, by far, even though I have finished higher. That was a fighting 12th, and less than five seconds from the winner. I could see the leaders for the whole race and it was a strange to see P14 on the pit board and yet still see the winner up ahead. Every corner, every lap I was able to ride the bike as hard as I could. It was hard to pass people, and had to wait for the riders up front to make mistakes - but the riders at the front aren't making many mistakes. We made a big step this week but we need some more top end power.”
Katsuaki Fujiwara:
“I had really bad chatter from the machine and decided it was better to stop in the pits than carry on with no chance to score points. It’s not how we wanted this weekend to finish.”
