Kawasaki Motors Australia press release:

A testing weekend at round 5 of the Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) saw Ninja ZX-10R rider, Robbie Bugden ride away holding onto 3rd overall on the championship point’s leader board.

The Morgan Park Raceway round in Queensland yielded mixed results for Kawasaki supported riders. Kawasaki BCperformance Racing Team Ninja ZX-10R rider, Robbie Bugden showed race winning pace in both Superbike races however tyre selection saw him give up positions in the closing laps of race one, to cross the line in 6th place.

Race two saw Robbie and the team opt for a harder tyre and the 33 year old Queenslander was rounding up his counterparts until a daring move saw him loose the front end of his race machine, ruling him out of the second race. Bugden finished his weekend in 14th overall for the round.

Kawasaki BCperformance Racing Team Manager, Kelvin Reilly said, “Robbie certainly had the pace to win so it was a bit of a missed opportunity this weekend. After the results in the first race, Robbie was only one point away from leading the championship which was a huge motivator. It was an unfortunate crash in the second race but we still collected some points for the round and Robbie is now sitting in a solid third place overall and we are very pleased about that!”

Bugden’s Ninja ZX-10R teammate, Kyle Buckley sat out the round due to injury sustained after a crash in the previous round.

Kawasaki Connection Ninja ZX-10R pilot, Matt Walters experienced his most trying round of the 2017 series yet, being forced to abort in both races.

“The weekend actually started off really well. We had the bike set up well in practice and we worked hard on one lap pace for qualifying, which gave us a top 10 position, so the team did a really good job. Everything went smoothly up until the races,” Matt said.

“In the first race an electrical wire fell off the ECU which was one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen! It wasn’t the fault of the bike or the team, just a wear and tear item.”

“In the second race we were off to a good start but got caught out with a new tyre and crashed which was disheartening because we made a lot of progress leading up to the races. It wasn’t the fault of the team, bike or anyone else. It’s just the way it went unfortunately but we are looking forward to Eastern Creek. We know Sydney Motorsport Park well and we know how to go fast there so we are aiming for race wins, one after the other,” Matt commented.

Kawasaki supported Supersport racer, Sam Muldoon worked hard with his Mick Muldoon Motorcycles Ninja ZX-6R to finish the round just shy of a podium in 5th place following a 7th and 4th place result in races one and two.

In smaller capacity racing, Reid Battye of New South Wales blew away his competition, scoring 1st – 1st – 2nd in the Up to 300cc category of the Supersport 300 class and taking the overall round win with his BCperformance Kawasaki Ninja 300. Reid leads the series in the Up to 300cc Supersport 300 class with his teammate, Yanni Shaw right behind him.

Additional notable results from Kawasaki riders included Tom Toparis who flew his Cube Racing Ninja ZX-6R across the line in 2nd place during the first race. Tom sits comfortably in 3rd place overall on the Supersport Championship leader board.

Kawasaki riders now look towards the second last round of the 2017 ASBK championship (round 6) to be held in NSW at Sydney Motorsport Park between 8th and 10th September.

Find out more about Kawasaki supported riders here – http://kawasaki.com.au/kawasaki-rider-profiles/