Zx-10r Race Kit

ZX-10R RACE KIT

Some assembly required. Adult supervision recommended. ZX-10R and battery not included.

FUNNY THE THINGS THAT FLASH THROUGH your brain. Am I a bad parent, I

wondered as Joey Lombardo's built Kawasaki ZX-10R whooshed once again to 190-some mph down Miller Motorsports Park's long front straight through a gaggle of Apex Track Day riders the Monday after the World Superbike race. Is my innocent, hairylegged, 15-year-old infant going to be ready for this 3500-foot straight after one day on a Moriwaki 250 at the Streets of Willow? (I'd be picking the kid up for the Yamaha Champions Racing School two days from now.)

This particular ZX-10 is far from quiet, but it’s already outrun its exhaust note about a fourth of the way down the front straight and arrives at the end (or near enough the end for me) with the digital speedo reading 196.

Thank goodness the Yamaha Champions school would turn out to be a bit less crowded, and thank goodness we’d only use about half the front straight at a time, since Miller breaks down into East and West courses.

What a bummer I didn’t get to take the school before riding the mighty Kawasaki. For me, for today, it’s enough to remember to shift backwards after hopping off a stock ZX-1 OR, and to remember not to rear-end any of the other 59 bikes the beast kept trying to suck into its green mono-nostril down Miller’s long front straight. Conceived as a Roadracing World project to show off what can be done with Kawasaki’s kit racing parts, and ridden the day before in a 30-minute GTO race by Chris Ulrich (who’s won a few WERA races on it), this bike has a motor assembled by the legendary and slightly infamous Carry Andrew. To say it is fast is to say that the Pope is religious. How does 203 rear-wheel hp sound?

I think it’s all about making racing “affordable.” Once you’ve ordered up your $760 adjustable ECU and $419 cable to connect it to your PC, and your $1700 racing generator and $1100 generator cover, and about 100 other Kawasaki racing kit parts, you’re most of the way toward competitiveness, see? (In fairness, these prices

are from a 2007 Kawasaki Racing catalog I happened to have lying around; Kawasaki’s current racingparts website is more scattered than monkey-house dung.) Figure $11,000 to build a replica. Anyway, this bike is waaayyy fast, even at Miller’s 4300-foot elevation. Anybody have any idea why none of these turns bear any resemblance at all to the races I watched on TV yesterday? None whatsoever?! But once the mongrel hordes of riders at the Apex trackday had lapped me a few times, I started to

pick up the plot. On the rare occasions I ride something serious with slicks, it takes a while to remember how much harder you can go-especially now that they're always delivered to you hot off the tire-warmers. I really don't think I'll ever adjust to jamming out of the pits and full speed ahead into the first corner. And I still don't think it's a good idea, anyway; I guy I met at Miller had just recovered from a terrible high-side, he said, caused when his rear warmer had failed without his knowledge. Hmmm... And pay no attention to the tachometer, either. This ZX-1 0 really gets rolling just about where the tach runs out of numbers. In any case, the ZX-1 OR does indeed show just how nice a bike you can build with a large budget, decades of experience and an ace wrench like Joey Lombardo to keep it all springtime fresh and happy. For me, it's too much too soon. The corner they call Witchcraft requires you to pull the trigger wide-open through about 3.5 gears and aim at a particular mountain peak, then turn just before you go off the edge of the track. I think it's where Jamie Hacking punted Luca Scassa off the track. Intimidating, to say the least...

"How do they go so fast, Joey?" "Well," says Lombardo, "one man's floor is another man's cell ing." That strikes me as pretty deep; in fact, I'm still contemplat ing it. That's why I like motorcycle racing. Fine, I'll have another cookie and wait here for the elevator. -John Burns