In an Instagram post from the Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK leading into this weekend’s Estoril Round of the 2024 Superbike World Championship, team racer Alex Lowes commented: “I am looking forward to the final two rounds. It’s a fun track layout at Estoril and I have always enjoyed it and I’m sure there are parts of the track where we can exploit the Ninja-10RR’s strengths. Our target is to do the best we can. Obviously, some podiums would be nice.
While packing up a gearbag and preparing for a journey to Estoril, Lowes, currently fifth in the standings, talked about the year, as well as the final phase of the 37th annual WorldSBK Championship season.
“I’m good, actually. It has been quite a busy year,” he said. “It has been flat-out, but I’m really looking forward to these next two weekends to finish off the year. Hopefully, they can the events of the season for me.”
Having racked up 11 podium finishes leading into the Aragon round in late September, Lowes was on excellent form before a nasty highside crash in the Tissot Superpole Race led to him being declared unfit for Race 2.
“Aragon was a bit unlucky,” said Lowes. “I made a mistake in the Superpole race in trying to go with the Ducati guys, basically. However, it was resurfaced track with a lot of grip and they were really able to use the speed of the bikes. Unfortunately, I made a mistake trying to stay with them.
“It’s a tough race, that Superpole race, because if you don’t go hard right from the start and dig in, it’s easy to drop backwards quite quick with how close the championship is at the minute. It was a shame, but I was riding well. We felt quite confident going into that race on the Sunday. We made some changes in the morning warmup and the bike was working well for the race. It was one of those things. At Estoril and Jerez I want to be back on the podium to finish the year and I think they can both be a couple of good tracks for the Kawasaki.”
With Toprak Razgatlioglu and the BMW M1000RR holding sway thus far in the 2024 WorldSBK Championship, as well as having to fend off an echelon of Ducati Panigale V4 Rs, Lowes and the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR are the lone Japanese-backed race effort present in the top five in the points race.
“It’s been tough, honestly,” said Lowes of being a one-man army. “This year has been mentally quite tough as well, because we are on the limit every weekend. Unfortunately, that means that sometimes a couple of mistakes have crept in. We’ve also had some fantastic rides. We’ve had podiums at all of the races, apart from Aragon and Barcelona, which are tracks with the longest straights. It means that we are really getting a lot out of the bike and we’re doing a good job as a team. We could just do with a little bit more speed at the end of the straight. Yes, it has been tough to race against them, but also there are some strong parts to our bike, which means in certain parts of the racetracks we’ve been really fast and really strong, which has been nice.”
Content with his surroundings at the Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK program, Lowes recently signed an extension with the group for next season.
“We get along within the team well,” he said. “We’re enjoying it. In racing, with good and bad results, if you can enjoy the weekends with the guys and enjoy working together, that’s half the battle because there is a lot of stress and a lot of pressure, and we’ve got a good working atmosphere. We work hard and we do the work in the practice sessions, and we’ve been enjoying the weekends a lot. This all certainly helps when it comes to the consistency and a good atmosphere and a good attitude for the full length of the season. It has been good. I’ve really been enjoying it.”
In doing so, Lowes will be front and center in the new Bimota by Kawasaki Racing project set to launch for 2025.
“I believe this opportunity has come at the correct time,” said Lowes. “Obviously, Kawasaki bought the Bimota brand and there is a new bike coming out, which we are going to see soon. The bike is going to make its public appearance after the last race at Jerez, so exciting times. Obviously, I don’t want to look too far ahead. I want to finish the next two races the best way possible and then we’ll see about this new and exciting project.
“I just try to keep improving, do my best with the guys. In life, you’re always trying to improve. I really feel like I’m still improving working with the guys. I’m understanding my mistakes and understanding some technical things on riding. There’s one thing that you can’t buy in the game and that’s experience. As we see in MotoGP right now, you need some speed. Everything else about our bike, the way I can feel on the front of the bike, and the way I can enter corners and pass people, makes it an enjoyable bike to ride. I really feel like I’m getting the maximum out of the bike. I feel like I’m confident riding the bike. Pretty much every track I’ve gone to this year, it has been the fastest I’ve ever been at that track. You can’t ask for much more.
“You know I really want to get Kawasaki back to where they were, which was being world champions. A project like this is what we need to bring them back to the front properly. This year we’ve been at the front in the odd race, but to be a realistic challenger at all circuits is where we need to be and it is clear that we need some new technology, and we’ve got that coming.
“It is certainly exciting. I’m looking forward to hard work in the testing over the winter. We’ll work on both on and off the bike to really give the guys the most feedback that I can to make a step forward next year.
And what does Lowes hope to achieve at Estoril come this weekend?
“I just need to work hard on Friday with the guys and try to put ourselves in a position to be competitive on the weekend. I’ll be happy if I do my best, and we do our best and there has been a lot of weekends this year where that means achieving a podium and I think that has to be our target.”