KAWASAKI RACING:

Both Broc Parkes and Makoto Tamada scored points on their Kawasaki Ninja ZX10R machines in Portugal, with Parkes twice getting on the board and Tamada taking points in race one.

In race one a thrilling fight between the Kawasaki team-mates saw Parkes just edge it and take 11th place, only a fraction of a second ahead of Tamada.

In race two, Parkes was again in strong form, and rode to 12th, feeling he had more grip in the second 22-lap outing.

Tamada ended his year with a bizarre experience, as he could not avoid running to the back of another rider’s machine when it suddenly slowed on the main straight in race two.

Unknown to Makoto, his front wheel rim had been completely buckled and broken by the impact, but with the contact between tyre and bead still intact,allowing him to continue to ride. Despite the vibration caused by the damage, Tamada continued to make laps hoping to take even a single point. He was 16th, and just missed adding to his score.

The final championship rankings for the Kawasaki pairing see Parkes 18th, on 51 points, while Makoto is 27th, on 12 points.

Broc Parkes: “The first race we didn’t have much grip form the start so I couldn’t do much to push into the top ten. I had some good middle battles and was happy enough to finish in eleventh with some solid points. Second race I felt the bike was better and we had more grip with more consistent lap times but with less front-runners dropping out the best I could do was 12th. I felt that we’ve hit a bit of a wall at the end of the season as we’ve had a couple of hard races but I feel the bike will get better and better with testing.”

Makoto Tamada: “I didn’t have very good starts today so it made it a little more difficult to make passes and move ahead but I was genuinely happy that I could finish both races, the first for this year aside from Phillip Island. The bike feeling was better in the second race than the first but I had a very bad start and had to move from last place to 16th. This is the best I could do. It has been a very difficult year for me with injuries and bad luck but the team have done a great job and I hope they continue to progress.”