WorldSBK: Alex Lowes renews with KRT for 2022 and 2023
Alex Lowes will remain with KRT for 2022 and 2023 alongside Jonathan Rea.
Alex Lowes and KRT have officially announced they will remain together for the 2022 and 2023 seasons, Lowes signing with the team unti 2023 which will be his 10th full season in the WorldSBK class. So far in his years he has raced for the Crescent Suzuki, remaining with them during their transition over to Yamaha machinery.
Lowes has established himself as a very important piece in the Kawasaki puzzle after signing for the team for 2020 and 2021, consistently notching up solid points-scoring finishes, podiums and even a race win in green, acting as a perfect #2 to six-time champion teammate Jonathan Rea. He boasts 28 podiums to his name so far in the class taking eight of these for Kawasaki with four of them coming in 2021. Lowes’ consistent points-scoring finishes mean Kawasaki are once again well place to battle for manufacturers and teams title in 2021 but it’s not going to be an easy job.
Kawasaki have also chosen to run the Lincolnshire man in the prestigious Suzuka 8 Hours race in 2021, Lowes boasts a strong record at the Japanese circuit winning in 2016, 2017 and 2018, finishing in second place to Kawasaki in 2019 following last-minute drama which saw Yamaha stripped from their win and Kawasaki handed victory, ending Yamaha’s dominance. Now racing in green and not blue, Lowes will have his eyes set on victory number four.
Alex Lowes: “I am really happy to have signed once more with the Kawasaki Racing Team, the most successful team in the current era of WorldSBK.
After a strange first year in the team last year due to the global situation and with such a short season it has been good to start this year at some different tracks and I am understanding the bike a lot more. It has also been slightly frustrating this year because I feel like we started strongly but the results are not quite where we would want them to be right now. We have a lot of potential and I am still in the top four of the championship, close to the top three, which is the target for this year.
I will be working hard for the next few weeks to make that next step to be regularly challenging for the podium. Honestly, I feel like it is close, so with this team and all these guys around me – with the relationships we have been building – everything is in place now to push things forward.
I am really thankful to stay in the team next year, and proud of the faith that Kawasaki has shown in me. In our job there is a lot more that goes on behind the scenes than the results that you see on the track so I am really happy about this new deal with KRT. A massive thanks to all the guys behind the project, to Guim and Biel Roda, Steve Guttridge and all the people at KHI in Japan for believing in me again.”
KRT Manager, Guim Roda: “Alex started with KRT during the Covid pandemic. He needed to learn quickly and concentrate on making championship points in those first three months; not easy. For 2021 he started the season strongly and we are all working to make those important steps to improve the performance of the overall package.
We are so happy to have Alex and he is highly motivated to continue with the KRT project. With this two-year agreement we are convinced that we will now build on these firm foundations to create the strongest package with him, Marcel, his Crew Chief, the Ninja ZX-10RR and the entire KRT organisation.”
Featured image – KRT
