KRT’s Alex Lowes completed 2021 with a thorough and surprisingly successful two day WorldSBK test at Jerez this week.
Despite still recovering from an injury-impacted season, Lowes led the way from all but teammate Jonathan Rea in lap times as the pair topped the unofficial standings with sub-1’40 efforts.
Having worked his way through a detailed list of potential upgrades and provided feedback ahead of the scheduled January return to the Andalucian circuit, the 31-year-old’s focus is now firmly on improving his fitness over the winter break.
“It was a positive test for me,” Lowes confirmed on Friday afternoon. "Today we had a great day and ticked off all the boxes on the list of our test items. Obviously, I am still not 100% fit in my physical condition, so I am quite surprised with the lap times we managed. Now I can enjoy Christmas.
"I have given the engineers a lot of feedback on some of the new parts so we can expect to make another good step when we ride the bike again in January. It was really nice for me to check the condition of my shoulder, which was positive, but there is still a long way to go. It was also really nice to see some improvements coming from the Kawasaki guys and all of the KRT team.
“A good test after a long season, and a difficult one for me with some injuries and without the results we wanted,” he continued. “But I can go home now, reset over Christmas and the New Year period and I am looking forward to 2022.
“Personally, I want to say a massive thank you to all of the team. It has been a long season for everybody - from the hospitality guys, the truck drivers, mechanics, everybody. It has been really, really nice and it’s a pleasure to be part of the team - see you soon guys!”
“We had a very nice test,” Marcel Duinker, Lowes’ Crew Chief confirmed. “We had a lot of updated material and we got to tick everything off the list. We tested every single new part during these last days and the weather was also very good.
“We felt we found improvements in every single area of the bike. The rider left with a very big smile on his face! Now we have all the information to start from a slightly different and higher specification when we test again in January. We will start to build again from that moment.”
