Vermeulen gets to grips with Kawasaki in Cartagena
Added on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Vermeulen gets to grips with Kawasaki in Cartagena
Chris Vermeulen finally got the chance to properly put his new Kawasaki ZX-10R World Superbike through its paces this week after a private test at Cartagena.
Having seen his earlier testing plans cut short by the weather in Japan, Vermeulen was able to better acquaint himself with the Kawasaki over the two-day session in Murcia, southern Spain.
Both Vermeulen and Kawasaki insisted that lap times were not the concern over the course of the test, with the former Suzuki MotoGP rider using the session primarily to introducing himself to his new crew, bike and tyres.
“It was all good and our first real time on the bike to get familiar with it,” said the Australian. “It was also the first time working with the mechanics and engineers from the team. That side also went well; the team seemed to gel and they are all excited about the future. They are all good guys and that side worked well too.”
“Lap time wise, according to most people, we did reasonably well, but we were not trying to go fast. We were just making changes on the bike and understanding how it was going to react to those changes. Electronics, suspension, chassis and engine, all that kind of stuff.”
Vermeulen was also forced to get to grips with a completely new circuit, having never ridden at Cartagena before.
“I had never been there before, not even in my BSB days, so it was another new thing to learn,” he added. “There were only three bikes going around so we maybe didn’t get the track surface at its peak. But we got a real understanding for how the bike feels – and it feels good.”
Team Manager Paul Risbridger was also pleased with the day’s work in favourable weather conditions.
“It was 15 to 18 degrees and the track was up to 25 degrees at some points of the day, so that was enough for the tyres to start working properly,” he said. “It was perfect weather and we really could not have asked for more. The guys did a lot of laps and we did some proper testing of the new electronics system with Chris, which does seem to be quite a step forward.”
