Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

by **MadKaw** » Thu May 14, 2009 6:59 pm

Morais To Join Parkes at Kyalami Round
Newsflash, 14 May 2009
South African Superbike rider Sheridan Morais will join the Kawasaki World Superbike Team at the Kyalami round, riding in place of injured regular competitor, Makoto Tamada. Currently the reigning South African Superbike Champion, 24-year-old Morais is no stranger to Kawasaki machinery as he rides a Ninja ZX-10R in his home series this season, and is also competing in SA Supersport.

He is a proven podium finisher in the Superstock FIM Cup, having secured second place for the Pedercini Kawasaki team at the Brands Hatch event last season. He has three seasons of experience in FIM Superstock in total, and was a British Championship runner for a time in 2005.

His track knowledge at Kyalami will assist both Sheridan and his team this coming weekend, as World Superbike has not been to Kyalami (for anything other than official testing for only some of the top teams) since the 2002 season.

by **MadKaw** » Sun May 17, 2009 2:01 pm

Lascorz Second Row At A Bumpy Kyalami
WSS, Kyalami, South Africa, 16 May 2009
Provec Motocard.com Kawasaki rider Joan Lascorz was top Ninja ZX-6R qualifier for round six of the WSS championship, with his team-mate Katsuaki Fujiwara still inside the top ten. Lascorz went fifth on the grid, just missing a front row start as he worked hard on overcoming the disruptive effects of Kyalami's bumpy track surface.

Fujiwara was tenth from 28 riders, and starts the 23-lap race on Sunday from row three.

The 4.246km Kyalami circuit saw a gentle fall of rain early in the first Supersport session but the clouds soon disappeared and track temperatures rose to 24°C in the African winter sun.

As Kyalami is a track which has not been used by WSS since 2002, there was one additional free practice session on Friday, to allow riders and teams to familiarise themselves with the layout.

Joan Lascorz: “I have some problems on the bumps because the bike is moving around too much and the bike does not turns as well as I want it to. Because of that it’s hard to keep the speed exiting the corner. We have improved the bike in these areas, but not quite enough yet. Tomorrow in warm-up we will move one stage more in this direction and then we will be ready to race.”

Katsuaki Fujiwara: “Our gearbox and engine settings have improved from day one, not so much of a big change, but a small step. The engine did not feel as powerful as we wanted but in terms of the cornering, the bumps were not as bad for me as some other riders. I would like to have a little bit more low gear corner exit acceleration at this track. But I think we are set to race and race well.”

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Morais 11th In Superpole As Parkes Battles On
WSBK, Kyalami, South Africa, 16 May 2009
Local track knowledge and a determined attitude took stand-in Kawasaki World Superbike Team rider Sheridan Morais to an outstanding 11th place on the Kyalami grid. Regular rider Broc Parkes made it into Superpole despite still carrying painful injuries, but could not progress beyond the first stage. He will start the two 24-lap races on Sunday from the fifth row of the grid.

Morais was on the pace throughout practice in his first ever WSB weekend racing for the UK-based Kawasaki World Superbike Racing team. He muscled his Ninja ZX-10R around his home track bumps and frequent changes of direction to a highly creditable 11th out of 24 riders.

The intensely physical nature of the Kyalami track was bad news for Parkes, who found the South African circuit a more difficult place to ride around than the previous venue of Monza. Despite lingering injuries Parkes made the top 20 of Superpole, and was only one place away from moving into the second Superpole qualifying session, ending up 17th.

Times in qualifying were particularly close at some stages of the weekend, with Morais sixth in the second regular pre-Superpole session, only 0.405 seconds from Michel Fabrizio, who was in the vanguard of every session except Superpole itself, which was won again by Ben Spies.

Broc Parkes: “It’s been a little bit tough this weekend, physically, a lot harder here than Monza. It’s held me back a little bit and we have had a few dramas getting my chassis set-up right. We can’t quite get it working the way we want. I have been struggling quite a bit, basically because my body is holding me back. It’s a problem made worse by the whole nature of the track and you don't even get a rest on the main straight. Tomorrow will be really tough but we will try to do the best job we can.”

Sheridan Morais: “It has been good, and I have never ridden on slicks before. Trying to get used to that took me some time and the qualifying tyre is something else. Unfortunately I only got two laps on the qualifiers but the team seems pretty happy and hopefully we can do the business tomorrow. There are a lot of fast changes of direction here so it’s very physical track, but I have been training really hard.”