PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse riders Makoto Tamada and Régis Laconi will begin the German WSB weekend confident of a fresh start on their Ninja ZX-10R machinery, at a circuit new to most current WSB riders.
The Nürburgring circuit was last used for World Superbike racing in 1999 and therefore few riders will have any worthwhile insider’s track knowledge of the circuit when it comes to raceday itself.
Of the two Kawasaki men, Laconi has at least some experience of the circuit that replaced the classic full road-style track on the GP calendar many years ago. He raced a very different type of machine then and being in control of a 200bhp Superbike now, his latest Nürburgring experience will feel very different from when he was a 250GP rider.
Tamada has absolutely no prior knowledge of the track, but is undaunted by this fact in his rookie season of WSB competition. He has already posted some confidence-boosting performances this year, as he carries on a programme of continuous improvement on his new-for-2008 machine.
Régis Laconi: “I rode there many years ago, when I was racing 250GPs. I had a nice race and I liked the place, so I hope that we can be one of the ones who make the best job in finding set-up. We will use the new swingarm there again and that has been a real advance for us. We can work with it from now on.”
Makoto Tamada:
“I have never ridden on the Nürburgring before, but I hope we can find the settings on our machine that will let us get a good result. We have been making improvements all year and it would be nice to bring them all together for the race in Germany.”
