A heralded former road racer, Murray Sayle has been a part of the foundations at Kawasaki for a number of years, assisting in various roles and lending his vast experience to the administration and operations of the Rydalemere outfit.

Sayle has a significant involvement and interest in the racing activities of the brand, and was happy to chat about the success of the ‘Green Machines’ on a local level for our newest Industry Insight.

Murray Sayle has been a part of the Kawasaki management and operations structure for a number of years.

Kawasaki may not have an official factory presence in the Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) but it is very well represented across the classes. Is providing support to a number of different riders more important to Kawasaki than fielding a concentrated factory effort?

Well that’s what we’re doing at the moment. That’s the plan for the foreseeable future. We last had the factory KRT team in 2009. We’ve got a number of riders on our products who are very competitive in the classes they compete in. We’re reasonably happy with these results.

The ZX-10R is a bike of preference for many in the Prostock class and the top three are all on Kawasaki. Is this an endorsement of the bike as a class leader in stock trim?

Well yes, the only bikes that will beat it are a Superbike. If you look at the results in Spain or England or anywhere else where it’s being ridden, it’s more than holding its own against its competitors.

Matt Walters has been a committed Kawasaki rider since he started on two wheels. Would there be any plans to support his move into the Superbike class on the ZX-10R?

At the moment we’re supporting him in the Prostock field where he’s obviously doing very well. It’s good to have a rider so loyal and committed to the brand. At this stage we are focusing on his efforts on that class, no plans have been made beyond that.

Kawasaki has been a standout performer in the 250 Production class since its return. Is it important for the brand to be involved in this development level of racing?

We’ve supported that class last year even though the regulations made it very difficult for our bike to win but we won. We’ve also got some riders in this year’s championship and the field is dominated by the Kawasaki 250s, as I understand. It’s a very competitive bike, and a low-cost bike. You can get yourself a Ninja 250R and get out there and go road racing for a very low outlay. It’s good to be a part of the development class.

Murray Sayle featured prominently in Kawasaki’s advertising and promotional collateral during his successful road race days.

It was recently announced that Troy Herfoss would be joining up with WNR Kawasaki to contest the Sydney Motorsport Park round. Is it exciting to have a champion of his calibre on board for the event?

It will be good to see how Troy goes. We understand the bike is very competitive, so I’m sure he will hold it in high esteem. It’s exciting, yes, we look forward to seeing the results.

From your extensive racing experience and background, can you identify anything within the series that could be worked upon or improved?

Well they should have a professional scrutineer who understands what the bikes are and what the claimed powers are. I think it needs a bit more checking to make sure they are understanding what bikes are performing above their performance levels. The Kawasaki is more than competitive in a number of classes, but what it’s not capable of doing is beating Superbikes or Supersports bikes in the wrong class.

What are your thoughts on the brand’s global racing programs – is Kawasaki in a healthy place against the competition?

Yes we’re going very good. If you look at the French Superbike Championships, they’ve got Gregory Leblanc winning there, we’ve got Shane Byrne in the UK leading that championship. If you look at the results of the SSP class in the UK, and the Superstock 1000 class in the UK, you can see that the Kawasaki is more than competitive. And if you look at the CEV Spanish Championships, what they call the Extreme Stock Class last year, the field was dominated by Kawasaki. You look at the Italian or some of the other championships and the Kawasaki is performing extremely well, as we would expect.