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The Kawasaki Racing Team today
saw all three of their riders come home in the top ten at the
US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. Randy de Puniet claimed 6th place,
Anthony West 7th and wild card Roger Lee Hayden, 10th.
In a stunning, 32-lap race at the California circuit, the trio
of 800cc Ninja ZX-RR pilots put on a great show: consistently
in the middle of the action, dicing with Edwards, Tamada, Nakano,
Barros and each other.
De Puniet was delighted to put the bad luck of the past few races
behind him after crashes and mechanical failure have prevented
the 26-year-old Frenchman from adding to his points total since
the UK round at Donington Park in June. Despite a patchy weekend,
he pulled out all the stops in the race today and earned himself
another 10 points, taking him to 50 overall and 12th position
in the championship.
Team mate, West, despite never having ridden at Laguna, yet again
fulfilled his wish to improve his race position at every round:
bettering the 8th he gained at Germany's Sachsenring last weekend.
Having started from 12th on the grid, the 26-year-old Australian
moved up through the pack to take his best finish in front of
a loud and very enthusiastic American audience, having spent
much of the weekend learning the track, as well as perfecting
his set up.
Wild card entry for the race, Roger Lee Hayden, put in an impressive
performance in his MotoGP debut, with his hard work over the
whole weekend paying dividends when he crossed the line in tenth
position, and ended his home Grand Prix as the highest placed
American rider.
After a sole day's test of the Ninja in Japan at the beginning
of July, Hayden had little experience on the bike but didn't
let that stop him getting a spectacular result for the MotoGP
squad. Indeed, he very narrowly missed out on 9th, having been
passed by the vastly experienced Alex Barros at the very final
corner.
Kawasaki's Competition Manager, Michael Bartholemy, was particularly
pleased with the progress the team made over the course of a
difficult weekend and, of course, with the race result: "This
is such a great moment; it's fantastic when things like this
happen. We're the only manufacturer to have three riders finish
today in the top ten and we had the first American rider over
the line at the end."
"It's been a difficult few days though: we didn't qualify
so well, we were struggling a little and even doubting ourselves
a bit but we had a fantastic race. Randy rode brilliantly, Anthony's
never even been here before and Roger's never raced a GP bike!
I think, as they say in California, it's been awesome. A very
special day for us," concluded Bartholemy.
The Kawasaki Racing Team leave Laguna on a high, determined to
carry the momentum through to the next round at Brno in the Czech
Republic, which takes place next month. |
