Ant West

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Originally Posted by T-D

i was watching "Faster" the other day and remember how highly praised Hopkins was when he came into motogp. he was hailed as a future champion.

does anyone believe he will ever win a championship on a kawasaki?

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Question on Hopkins is does anyone believe he would be a champion on the Yamaha or Honda? Kwak have no chance if he wouldn't.

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Originally Posted by patnicholls

I think I've put this forward before, but you could argue that Suzuki and Kawasaki were somewhat flattered last year by the majority of Honda and Yamaha riders struggling - certainly compared to how they're doing this year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Gr..._racing_season

Tech 3 were backmarkers last year with Sylvain and Makoto Tamada, and now with Michelins and Colin and JT on board they're consistent top 6 contenders.

Jorge Lorenzo has scored three-quarters as many points in 2008 so far as Colin did in the whole of last year on the second factory bike, even including a DNF and a DNS.

Two of the satellite Hondas in 2007, Nakano for JiR (now the Dovi bike, doing well in 2008) and Checa for LCR - still struggling with Randy de P - had a woeful time throughout 2007. Nicky struggled massively in 2007 until Assen - more so than this year arguably. Toni Elias had a bunch of crashes and injuries for Fousto Gresini's team which ruled him out of any contention.

All of that left only Valentino, Dani and Marco doing it for Honda and Yamaha in 07 and chances for Suzuki, Kawasaki and D'Antin to do quite well. In 2008 there are three more fast Yamahas at the front and a couple more Hondas near the pace, which will have knocked the Suzukis and Kawasakis back about four spots in the order, even if their time gap to the top has stayed constant. Loris is riding pretty well but is at the lower end of the top ten, and Chris V hasn't suddenly started riding badly (in 11th this year vs 6th overall last year). That would seem to bear out that things have got more difficult for the smaller teams.

With the best will in the world, I don't think the Kawasaki was a potential winner last year - it hasn't been at any stage since they re-entered in 2002. With Hopkins on board, it's still about as close on pace as Randy was this time last year (although both were/are not consistently on the pace) - the problem being that Westy is now a fair bit slower by comparison which seems to be down to confidence and not being able to get a satisfactory setup. It's the age-old 'thin line between clever and stupid' thing (see also M. Melandri & Ducati).

There's probably a point to this post, but I don't know what it is... :p

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I don't think Kawasaki and Suzuki were flattered last year, they did a good job to become more competitive against Honda and Yamaha who didn't live up to expectation. The difference this year is that both Yam and Rhonda have got things sorted and Zook and team green haven't improved more to get on terms with them.
I think the problem for both Kawasaki and Suzuki is that they are too small on the grid and suffer from not enough bikes. Like Ryan and John said, satellite teams (with factory support) I think would help. At the moment, Kawasaki have West who simply cannot get along with the bike (I have a suspicion that this years Ninja is more designed for Hopkins but it completely doesn't suit Ant's style) and Hopkins seems to be in a constant state of injury whilst Suzuki have Capirossi performing reasonably solidly and Vermeulen having an 'anything that could go wrong is going wrong' type of season. With only 2 riders, it means there is much narrower margin for error. Yamaha last year is a good example. If Rossi didn't do well, they were pretty much nowhere. This year the load has been spread much further and if one does bad, there are others to pick up the slack. They also have 4 very good riders which is also quite critical to good performance (obviously). It would be great to see a Pons Kawasaki team and an Aspar or Schwantz Suzuki satellite teams to fill out the grid a bit.

From the MotoGP website.

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Donington visit provides litmus tests for Kawasaki duo
Tuesday, 17 June 2008

For John Hopkins and Anthony West, this weekend´s visit to Britain will be something of a moment of truth.


The bwin.com British Grand Prix will provide resolution to two pending issues for the Kawasaki Racing team, particular to riders John Hopkins and Anthony West. The former will find out just how much his back injury –suffered in a crash at the last round in Catalunya- has healed, whilst the latter will discover if a testing trip to Japan has helped to resolve his rear grip problems with the Ninja ZX-RR.

`In the lead up to the last two races I had been training very hard so thankfully I haven´t lost any fitness, which is always a problem when carrying injuries, and I've had the chance to rest to help the healing process,´ says Hopkins ahead of the Donington date. The Anglo-American gritted his teeth through a one day post-race test in Barcelona, with a view to a positive result at this latest race.

` I´m still very stiff and sore, but Donington Park is like a home away from home, and it's a track I definitely enjoy. For me the British race is one of the biggest races of the season, with many members of my family coming to support me, and regardless of my injury I´ll be looking to gain a strong result aboard the Kawasaki.´

Under pressure to perform one year on from his Kawasaki debut, West is riding for his future at every round of the 2008 season. The rain may, as it did last year, play into the Australian´s hands at Donington Park, and his visit to the land of the rising sun last week was devised with the purpose of preparing him for this and future outings.

`After Catalunya I flew to Japan to complete two days of intensive testing. Unfortunately the first day was rained off, but we managed to get quite a few laps in on day two and the results were positive. We focussed particularly on changing the engine settings to improve the overall handling of the machine and we found a set-up direction that's very different from what I´m used to,´ says an optimistic West.

`The bike felt really good, but the track had a lot more grip in comparison to those we race on in MotoGP, so the real test for the changes we´ve made will be this weekend at Donington Park. Last year we gained a strong result during my first outing on the Ninja ZX-RR and I hope that with the work we´ve done in the last week, we can be back where we belong in the top ten.´

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And after first practice, Westy's Japan test seems to be bearing fruit finishing 13th, slightly under 1.5 seconds behind fastest man, Stoner. Not where he'd like to be but something to hopefully build on.

Fingers crossed for him

as shown so far this weekend, when the bike is right, west can fight.

hey, i like that. i might trademark it even... :)

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Originally Posted by T-D

as shown so far this weekend, when the bike is right, west can fight.

hey, i like that. i might trademark it even... :)

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You're a poet and you didn't know it!

West is officially on the improve with 2 'good' practice sessions in a row. Now begins the fightback. :up:

Go Westy :up:

At the world superbikes at the island, I bought my little sister a Kawasaki bear, she named it Westy! :) His fanbase is growing by the minute! :D

"Ant's" comments after day 1 Donington

`Finally I can say that we´ve managed to make a real step forward with the rear traction problems we have suffered with for so long. The recent test in Japan was positive and this has been proven on the track today, as we´re not so far off the pace. The setting we have found does mean the bike now wheelies more, however this is much easier to deal with than not being able to exit the turns. We still need to improve the first part of corner exit, but the rear is gripping much better and driving forward out of the turns rather than spinning so much, which means it feels a lot more controllable and stable than previously. I hope that this improvement can be reflected on qualifying rubber tomorrow, and although there is still a lot of work to do, I feel confident that we are heading in the right direction.´

Bravo Ant!