East to West

It's been a whirlwind of days for me lately, and it's gonna be some furious race and rush in the weeks to come for Shinya. He finished a familiar number 10 in Shanghai, where it seems to be as foggy and gloomy as last year. Shinya, on the other hand, was as luminous as ever. If only his glow would blind the other riders a little.


The utter, utter disappointment happened last weekend at Le Mans when he qualified second, and then lost the position quickly once the red lights went off, and to top it all off was penalised for his jump start. How he could possible have a jump start when he trailed at the start is still an utter mystery to me.

"Obviously I'm disappointed. I didn't get such a good start, but I was holding onto the back of the leading group for the first few laps and I was just starting to find a good rhythm on the bike. I couldn't believe it when I saw the pit board calling me in for a ride through penalty. At the time I had no idea what I'd been penalised for, which meant that it was difficult to refocus on the race when I'd completed the ride through. Obviously I now know it was for jumping the start. Our data shows that the bike rolled forward slightly before I launched it off the line, so it was the right call, but that doesn't make it any less disappointing. After the penalty I rejoined dead last, but I got my head down and eventually managed to salvage at least some points. After such a good practice and qualifying performance, for the weekend to end the way it did is frustrating, but we have to put this behind us now and focus on the next race in Mugello."

- Shinya after the race

Source : Kawasaki-Eckl

Alrite he didn't do too well then, but I'll just post a photo of what he would like if he had won. Maybe it'd conjure up some good mojo for Mugello.

Source : crash.net