Kawasaki Moto GP - Mugello

[MadKaw]

Circuit: Mugello
Date: 26/05/2008


KAWASAKI MOTIVATED FOR MUGELLO
After the frustrations of the French Grand Prix at Le Mans just over a week week ago, Kawasaki’s John Hopkins and Anthony West head this week for the Tuscan hills of Italy, and the picturesque circuit of Mugello, for the sixth round of the MotoGP world championship.

John Hopkins is looking to get his first season aboard Kawasaki's Ninja ZX-RR back on track, after a disappointing result in China and a retirement due to a mechanical problem last time out in France. The Anglo-American celebrated his 25th birthday on 22nd May, and is determined to award himself a belated birthday present with a strong result in Italy.

With six races packed into the next eight weeks, the Kawasaki pilot knows he has to be on the pace at Mugello, and then carry that momentum through until the summer break if he is to improve his position in the overall championship standings by the midway point of the season.

The Italian Grand Prix marks another first for Hopkins' Kawasaki teammate, Anthony West. The 26-year-old has never raced the Mugello circuit aboard a MotoGP machine before, and it's not a circuit he was particularly enamoured of during his 250cc racing days.

Typically, West is unfazed by the challenge ahead, and is focussed instead on working with his crew to eliminate some of the problems with rear traction that has held him back so far this season, and to reclaim his rightful place in the top ten.

One of the most picturesque circuits on the MotoGP calendar, the 5.245km Mugello track twists its way across two sides of a scenic valley, deep in the Tuscan hills above Scarperia. The circuit includes six left turns and nine rights in total, and regular changes of elevation. It features many fast chicanes, twisty sections and an incredibly long straight. The chicanes are taken at relatively high pace, and accuracy in a rider's lines is vital in the last sector to keep momentum up to the final turn, out of which the riders launch themselves onto the 1.141km main straight.



Hopkins
Kawasaki MotoGP Pilot #21
"I was happy to leave Le Mans after a difficult weekend, and it's been good to spend some time at home, especially on my birthday. A lot of my friends flew out to see me and we had a good time relaxing, having fun on the beach, so I feel really good. I've been training hard and I'm looking forward to Mugello. We made some improvements at the test following the race in France, and now we have four races close together, so we need to make a good start to these. The next round is going to be a difficult task for us, but I'm confident we can bounce back from our disappointing results. We're one-hundred-percent fit, focussed and ready to take on the challenge in Italy"


West
Kawasaki MotoGP Pilot #13
"Le Mans was tough, but I got back to my new home in Belgium and tried to put it behind me by training even harder for Mugello. One of the good things about living so close to our team boss is that there is always one of his friends around to go training with, whether it be running, cycling or mountain biking. Ahead of the Italian Grand Prix I'm also going to head down to Austria to do some downhill mountain biking, so I'll be raring to go by the time I get to the track. The Mugello circuit is not one of my favourites, and I've never ridden a MotoGP bike there before, but with the information we gleaned from the post race test in France, I'm hopeful that we'll be able to make another big step forward this coming weekend."

[red_dave]

OH SHIT!

I'll be in Brissy Sunday night! Need to find someone with Boxtel!

Might ring Ponti!

[mfzx6r]

OH SHIT!

I'll be in Brissy Sunday night! Need to find someone with Boxtel!

Might ring Ponti!

Yeah !!!! and I think the WSBK is on Monday from USA at 2 or 3 in the morning !!

[mfzx6r]

OH SHIT!

I'll be in Brissy Sunday night! Need to find someone with Boxtel!

Might ring Ponti!

Yeah !!!! and I think the WSBK is on Monday from USA at 2 or 3 in the morning !!

Close MotoGP Round 6, Italy 06:30 pm - 11:30 pm foxsports2
Sunday June 01 2008
Genre: Sport Motorsport Rating: Screening Info: Widescreen Show Details: Tune in for some of the all-time great races and possibly the most dramatic of all championships!
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Close World Superbike Championships Salt Lake City, USA, Race 1 03:30 am - 05:00 am
Monday June 02 2008
Genre: Sport Motorsport Rating: Screening Info: Widescreen Show Details: The FIM World Superbikes is the premier road racing series for production based motorcycles and in recent years has become a worldwide phenomenon. With 13 races spanning from Australasia to Europe the series truly earns its world status.
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Close World Superbike Championships Salt Lake City, USA, Race 2 06:30 am - 08:30 am
Monday June 02 2008
Genre: Sport Motorsport Rating: Screening Info: Widescreen Show Details: The FIM World Superbikes is the premier road racing series for production based motorcycles and in recent years has become a worldwide phenomenon. With 13 races spanning from Australasia to Europe the series truly earns its world status.
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[sneakypete]

OKAY...maybe Westy stands a chance to keep the ride for 2009 coz its obvious the machine has been shit this year. Hopper seems unable to qualify much better than Westy, they were 1st & 3rd in wet practice this would indicate that both riders are in the same spot (roughly) but Westy is having serious rear traction probs.
both riders seem REALLY pissed - and rightly so i reckon, their comments show they aren't happy.. read on:

DISAPPOINTMENT AT MUGELLO FOR KAWASAKI PAIR

Anthony West was the sole Kawasaki finisher in today's Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, bringing his Ninja ZX-RR home in a points scoring position after a technical problem caused his Kawasaki teammate, John Hopkins, to crash out of the race after just seven laps.

Both Kawasaki riders lined up on the grid today knowing they were facing a tough task, after rain affected practice sessions on Friday and Saturday left them with limited dry track time in which to perfect the race set-up of their Ninja ZX-RR machines.

Hopkins crashed out of contention just seven laps into the race, after a fault with his quickshifter meant he was unable to backshift on the approach to the ultra-fast turn one, and he was left with no option but to run straight on.

West once again showed the determination for which he is rightly known and raced on to the end, to be rewarded with 15th position and another points scoring finish.

While today's result was frustrating for the Kawasaki Racing Team, both Hopkins and West are now more determined than ever to end the recent run of bad luck with a strong performance at next weekend's Grand Prix of Catalunya.

Anthony West: #13 - 15th Position
"I'm starting to sound like a stuck record now, because every time I get off the bike I'm explaining the same problem. It's fairly simple; the rear just spins up when you get on the gas out of the turns and the bike goes sideways when it's supposed to go forwards. This is a real, physical problem, not something that exists only in Anthony West's head. Now I'm looking to the team for a solution, because I came to MotoGP to race, and so far this season I've had little opportunity to do so. Whether the team can find a solution before the next race, which is only one week away, I don't know."

John Hopkins: #21 - DNF
“We saw in qualifying that we were some way off the pace in race trim, so we decided to take a chance with some fairly big changes ahead of morning warm-up today. It was a gamble that paid off, because the set-up of the bike was much improved in the race. But then, just seven laps into the race the bike developed a fault with the quickshifter and I couldn't backshift approaching turn one. With no way to scrub off speed the crash was inevitable. It was a big crash, and I count myself lucky that I managed to walk away uninjured. Obviously I'm frustrated because this is the second time in a row that a technical problem has put me out of the race. This cannot be allowed to happen again."

Michael Bartholemy: Kawasaki Competition Manager
"This was another disappointing weekend for the Kawasaki Racing Team. The changeable weather during practice on Friday and Saturday meant we were under pressure to maximize dry track time on Saturday afternoon, but then we hit some problems, which meant we didn't qualify as high as we were expecting. We made some quite major changes to set-up ahead of the race, which certainly worked for John, but then this improvement was undone when a technical problem caused him to crash out of the race. Once again, Anthony battled on to the end, riding around the problems he's having with rear traction to finish in the points. We are obviously working to solve this issue, but with so many races in such a short space of time, it's not proving easy. After two retirements in as many races, now we must focus on getting both riders to the finish line in Catalunya."

[mick_dundee]

While today's result was frustrating for the Kawasaki Racing Team, both Hopkins and West are now more determined than ever to end the recent run of bad luck with a strong performance at next weekend's Grand Prix of Catalunya.

Dunno about anyone else but i'm kinda jack of hearing about next meet it all gets better...

Anthony West: #13 - 15th Position "I'm starting to sound like a stuck record now, because every time I get off the bike I'm explaining the same problem.

It's not just you Westy the whole Kwaka PR sounds like a broken record, we were shit out of luck (AGAIN) and we'll be better next meet...

Michael Bartholemy: Kawasaki Competition Manager
"This was another disappointing weekend for the Kawasaki Racing Team. The changeable weather during practice on Friday and Saturday meant we were under pressure to maximize dry track time on Saturday afternoon, but then we hit some problems, which meant we didn't qualify as high as we were expecting.

Unless i'm mistaken, wouldn't EVERY other team have had to deal with the same thig? Enough with the excuses I reckon, clearly the bike is a POS and it's time to admit it I reckon.

[Makybe05]

Yeah just like you Mick, I'm pretty fed up with it. Time to make some drastic changes me thinks.

[Six Addict]

the bike is obviously a head of junk.... ant is prolly in the second tier of riders too but if he had a bike that gelled with his style then he'd go ok....


hell look at melandri on the duke... he tried 4 completely different setups to get some more weight and therefore heat into the rear tyre... all this did was make his front end feel vague...

melandri is in the top tier of riders and he's on a duke so that shows u that the kawa prolly isnt the worst bike in the field...

casey obviously just has the GP8 nutted out...

it seems tho that kawa have gone backwards... they should test the 07 and 08 models back to back to see what the problems are... west wast lurking around 7-12 place last year.... now he's 12-19...