From a press release issued by Fuchs Kawasaki:

MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2004
PRESEASON TESTING – SEPANG, MALAYSIA
20TH JANUARY 2004

NAKANO MAKES HIS KAWASAKI DEBUT AT SEPANG

Just six days after the official announcement that Shinya Nakano would ride for the Kawasaki Racing Team in 2004 the 26-year-old Japanese rider made his debut aboard the Ninja ZX-RR MotoGP machine during the first day of a planned four day test at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia.

Sporting his trademark ‘mooneyes’ helmet, Nakano took to the track aboard the very latest version of the Ninja ZX-RR and spent the day familiarising himself with the characteristics of both the 990cc, inline four-cylinder MotoGP machine and the Bridgestone tyres. Despite this being his first outing on the Kawasaki, the popular Japanese rider ended the day just 1.5s off his best lap time in October’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

Former Kawasaki test and development rider, and now full time MotoGP contender, Alex Hofmann, spent today carrying out comparison tests using the 2003 version of the Ninja ZX-RR MotoGP machine, but still managed to improve upon his previous best lap time around the Sepang circuit. Having been impressed with the consistency of the Bridgestone tyres during today’s rain shortened session the former European 250cc Champion is looking forward to testing the tyres further on the 2004 version of the Ninja ZX-RR tomorrow.

Shinya Nakano: best time – 2:06.5 (44 laps)
“I was very excited about riding the Ninja ZX-RR for the first time today and, after just this short test session, my first impression of the Kawasaki is that it is a very compact, but very powerful machine. Now we need to work at finding a good chassis balance, as well as setting the bike up to be more stable on the brakes, but this is to be expected with a completely new chassis. We’ll also be making a few changes to the gearbox tonight, ready to start testing again tomorrow morning. Overall, I’m very happy with how things have gone today.”

Alex Hofmann: best time – 2:06.2 (41 laps)
“I started with the old bike today, as we had a couple of modifications we wanted to evaluate before switching to the new bike tomorrow, but I still managed to go quicker than my previous best lap time at this circuit. The consistency of the Bridgestone tyres is impressive; I did my fastest time today on a set of tyres with almost 20 laps on them. Now I can’t wait to try them on the new bike tomorrow.”

Harald Eckl: Team Manager
“It has been interesting to watch Shinya adapt step by step to the new bike and it has given me confidence in the fact that we are moving in the right direction. We have a lot more parts and settings to test over the next three days and we’re looking forward to leaving here with enough data to enable us to make the next step in the development process when we return to Sepang in February. It has also been good to see what is effectively a new team starting to work together to produce the results we know the bike and riders are capable of. This, in particular, bodes well for the rest of the season.”