Chris Vermeulen ended only 1.220 seconds adrift from the fastest rider after an official two-day test at Phillip Island; the last shakedowns before the 2010 WSB season starts for real.

Tom Sykes was just a little behind his team-mate in testing, setting a 1’33.202 lap compared to Vermeulen’s 1’32.870, as both riders made valuable set-up improvements in readiness for the upcoming Phillip Island SBK races. The highly competitive nature of World Superbike in 2010 was demonstrated by the fact that Chris was just over a second from top spot, yet was ranked 16th, with Sykes 18th.

New suspension parts for the officially-entered Kawasaki Ninja ZX10R, plus many other smaller refinements, allowed both Chris and Tom to improve all through the tests. Each rider posted their best times in the very last session, despite high winds that were not present during the morning of the last day.

The extensive Kawasaki Racing Team winter test schedule has now been completed and the 2010 season gets underway in Australia with first practice on 26th February, Superpole on Saturday 27th and two races on Sunday 28th.

Chris Vermeulen “We improved in every session around here, and it was good to be riding at a track I really knew. We tried out some new linkage and shock components and they really helped with weight transfer. Now we are at the stage of trying to dial the bike in and understand the different race tyres. We still have work to do on race weekend and the times were so close at this test. Another two-tenths and I would have moved up about six places.”