WALKER INTO THE TOP TEN AT LOSAIL

[Kwackerz]

Doha/Losail, Quatar, 23 February 2008

Chris Walker (GIL Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R) made his way from 20th on the grid to ninth in the World Supersport race at Losail, fighting until the last lap to improve his position. Katsuaki Fujiwara (GIL Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R) had a tough race but also improved on his starting position, taking a point for 15th place in raceday track conditions that suited his machine settings more than they did in qualifying.

The race, over 18-laps of the 5.380km circuit, had 24 finishers.

Each rider in the GIL Kawasaki team is new to the squad for 2008, making their early points scoring performances more than respectable. Many of Fujiwara and Walker’s championship challengers failed to finish the Losail race, which was won by Broc Parkes, from Joan Lascorz and Craig Jones.

Chris Walker: “I’m happy with the finish and I thought to myself this morning if I could scrape into the top ten I knew I would be pleased. Ninth for everyone in our garage is pretty cool. I really enjoyed the race, even if I was not in the place I wanted to be in. I was right there until the last five laps, then I had to slow a bit. But until then, it was really good and I learned a lot once again. The boys in the garage worked well today and we went back to the setting we had in the pre-race tests. It has been a bit tough for us this weekend so to finish ninth is good. This is actually my best ever finish at Qatar, even in Superbike!”

Katsuaki Fujiwara: “I’m really happy to get 15th because that one point could be very important when we arrive at the final round. Last week we tested here and the feeling was good but for the race weekend there was a lot of wind and lower track temperatures, which made qualifying difficult. Today the conditions were better and we made some small changes to the settings. Although it was not perfect I felt good and was able to be very consistent.”

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