Britain's Chaz Davies has been beaten to riding John Hopkins' Kawasaki at the Laguna Seca MotoGP round by British-born fellow AMA rider Jamie Hacking.
Hacking currently rides for Kawaski in AMA Superbikes and MotoGP team boss Michael Bartholemy reckons he is the natural choice, despite the fact he has no MotoGP experience.
"Given his results in this year's AMA Superbike championship, Jamie was the obvious choice for Kawasaki when the factory started looking for a temporary replacement for John Hopkins," said Bartholemy. "We are looking forward to seeing what he can do on our bike at Laguna Seca, especially after he broke the lap record at Kawasaki's Autopolis circuit in Japan during two days of testing on the Ninja ZX-RR this week.
"One big advantage that Jamie has is that he knows the track extremely well, and I think that will count in his favour, as it will allow him to focus completely on the bike during the race weekend. Roger Lee set a hard target last year by finishing as the first American across the line in tenth place, but I'm sure that Jamie is heading to the USGP determined to do even better! I'm sure that he will do a good job for us at Laguna."
Hacking said: "We've just completed two days of testing with the bike in Japan, and I felt pretty comfortable straight away. It's an amazing machine. I can't believe how sophisticated the electronics package is on the bike; already it feels like you can open the gas impossibly early out of the turns, but the data shows that it's actually possible to open the throttle even earlier.
"To do this requires some confidence in the electronics, and that confidence will only come with more track time on the bike. Roger Lee set the benchmark at this race last year with an outstanding tenth place finish, so that's certainly given me something to aim for."