It was a case of double delight for Kawasaki at the Isle of Man TT as Ian Hutchinson and Ivan Lintin shared the winner’s spoils in the Superstock and Lightweight races respectively. Backing those victories up, another well respected Kawasaki competitor, James Hillier, enjoyed his most successful TT to date with podiums in the Superbike and Senior TT races, along with Hutchinson.
Hutchy’s week, which included two other victories, was a pure ‘fairy-tale’ ending for the rider from Yorkshire who endured horrific injuries at a UK mainland race and then many subsequent operations during a slow five year return to full racing fitness. He was cheered around the 37 ¾ mile (60 kilometre) course which comprises villages, jumps, long straights and a mountain section as well as over 200 corners.
TT Week started on a high for Kawasaki with a double podium in the opening six lap RST Superbike race. PBM Kawasaki rider Hutchinson made an emotional return to the podium with a stunning second place, whilst Quattro Plant Muc-Off Kawasaki star James Hillier enjoyed a strong start to his TT by taking the final podium slot in third.
The Royal London 360 Superstock race saw ‘Hutchy’ power his Superstock Ninja ZX-10R to victory in an enthralling four lap race. Overcoming early race leader Michael Dunlop, Hutchinson took the victory by 17 seconds with Hillier missing out on a podium by just 0.2s. Such was the pace of this year’s event, ‘Hutchy’ smashed the existing race record by 32 seconds with an average speed including a pit stop, with tyre change, of 129.197 mph (207.922kph).
Further Kawasaki success came in the Lightweight race as Ivan Lintin secured his first ever Isle of Man TT victory with a dominating display in the three lap race on his ER-6f based machine. Hillier again climbed onto the podium with a second place finish on his exquisite racing version of Kawasaki’s popular sporting twin-cylinder machine.
It was a record-breaking PokerStars Senior race as Hutchinson topped off his TT week with a podium in third, despite suffering machine trouble in the closing stages. Hillier enjoyed a stunning final ride of his TT campaign to take second place, breaking into the 132mph (212kph) average lap record ‘club’.
To make it a truly memorable week for the thousands of fans thronging the walls and hedgerows, Hillier took the mighty supercharged Kawasaki Ninja H2R around the circuit for a parade lap. Despite it only being a demonstration lap, the star still recorded an incredible 206mph (331kph) down the Sulby straight on a GPS tracker he had operating on his mobile telephone. The Kawasaki Racing Team duo of Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes also completed a demo lap on unique World Superbike replica Ninja ZX-10R road going machines.
