Kawasaki Racing Team’s (KRT) dominance over the World Superbike Championship (WSBK) 2017 season continues with “Team Green” notching up its 100th race win at Donington Park, England the previous weekend. With the current generation 2017 Kawasaki ZX-10RR as its weapon, KRT won back-to-back WSBK championships in 2015 and 2016.
With current WSBK champion Jonathan Rea (30) from Northern Ireland spearheading efforts and clinching the 100th race win, along with team mate Englishman Tom Sykes (31), KRT has been a fixture in WSBK since 1988, where Adrien Morillas (59) gave KRT its first WSBK win.
“There was a little bit of pressure for the 100th Kawasaki win and I was thinking about it today. From half race distance I said to myself that it has to be me today. We managed the race perfectly and I even managed a nice little stand-up wheelie at the end!” said Rea.
WSBK race motorcycles are based on series production bikes which can be purchased right off the dealer’s showroom floor. With the addition of racetrack-only performance items such as camshafts, full-system lightweight exhaust, wheels, engine casings and race bodywork – usually included in the bike’s race kit – any superbike such as the limited production Kawasaki ZX-10RR can be turned into a near enough replica of the same machine being raced by Rea and Sykes.
For 2017, the Kawasaki ZX-10RR is an extension of the ZX-10R released in 2016, and which was included into the paultan.org “Motorcycle of the Year” Top Five list. The ZX-10R comes with a 998 cc, four-cylinder, DOHC, 16-valve, liquid-cooled power plant that produces 197 hp as standard, with 204 hp kicking in with Ram-Air.
Closely developed with Kawasaki’s World Superbike team, the ZX-10R comes with Sport-Kawasaki Traction Control (S-KTRC), Kawasaki Intelligent Braking (KIBS) and a host of electronic riding aids. New for 2017 is an updated quickshifter (KQS), that allows for both up- and down-shifts without use of the clutch.
The 2016 Kawasaki ZX-10R retails in Malaysia for RM104,859 including GST, excluding registration, road-tax and insurance. Current colour choices for the ZX-10R are KRT green and Winter Test matte-black.
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Wish we had our MV Agusta. At least we too can win some races. Pity it was sold for 1 Euro.
U prefer we continue bleeding like AMG still does, so that u got modal to bash? oh wai
Proton bleeding billions also we never sell? oh wai
Bukan tak jual ke? oh wai
Strangely in the western media comparo test, the championship winning ZX-10R is always rated behind the S1000RR, RSV4 & the Panigale. Ridiculous. Maybe the RR version could change that..
In a nutshell, a standard Kawasaki ZX-10R is closer to a racing replica of Kawasaki WSB racing bike than other BMW S1000rr, R1 or Panigale WSB bike.
In actual racing, the Ducati Panigale have a higher BHP & top speed in Moto GP & WSB due to bigger cc. It’s about time the racing governing body restore a level playing field by making all racing bike use the same displacement(cc).