For 2025, Manuel Puccetti and his new KRT team will run full WorldSBK spec Ninja ZX-10RR machinery. The ZX-10RR itself has been through many stages of development, first as the Ninja ZX-10R and for some time now in its RR version – both of which can be purchased at any Kawasaki road bike dealer. This latest Ninja ZX-10RR saw significant changes for the 2024 season, mainly due to the unique WorldSBK balancing rules and concession systems.
The Ninja ZX-10RR engine features a finger follower valve actuation system (also used on Kawasaki’s top motocross bikes) with a DLC (Diamond-Like Carbon) on the followers reducing friction and enhancing durability. Added to that, “ride-by-wire” style 47mm throttle bodies are coupled to lightweight pistons with their attendant reduction in reciprocating mass.
In historical terms, the original ancestor to the latest RR model, the ZX-10R, reached a new career zenith in 2013 when Tom Sykes and the Kawasaki Racing Team won the WorldSBK championship. During that year the Ninja ZX-10R was the bike to have in WorldSBK, achieving ten victories over fourteen hard fought rounds of racing.
Come the 2014 season and the litre class Ninja placed Tom Sykes second in the WorldSBK Riders’ championship, delivering eight race wins for the gritty Yorkshireman. In the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup the Ninja came close to winning the title also.
Rea’s championship win in 2015, in his debut year as a Ninja ZX-10R rider delivered total domination and with the two official KRT machines inside the top three finishing places, the bike proved versatile in the extreme. In fact Rea won on his first outing on the machine at the Phillip Island season opener, a sign of what was to come.
The 1-2 result in 2016 for Rea and Sykes on the all-new Ninja enhanced the reputation of the ZX-10R, while podium success also followed the path of the new bike into the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup class. Cut to 2017 and Rea delivered a stunning third championship in a row, cementing his relationship with the mighty Ninja and securing his place among the Superbike elite.
Subsequent championship wins in 2018 and 2019 for Rea re-confirmed his and this machine’s legendary status. Even early season threats in the form of a serious new challenge from Alvaro Bautista could not deflect Rea or his Ninja ZX-10RR from their winning championship trajectory. 17 race wins for Rea and two more from eventual independent riders’ champion Toprak Razgatlioglu served to double underline that once more Kawasaki’s Ninja ZX-10RR was the bike to beat.
In 2020 the KRT Ninja ZX-10RR riders, Rea and new signing Alex Lowes, each scored a race win in the opening WorldSBK round in Australia. Global pandemic concerns led to a long interruption thereafter, and finally a shortened season. The intense European-based restart saw Rea maximise the bike’s potential to win his sixth successive title and get to within one win of the magic total of 100 career race victories.
Rea used the revamped bike to great effect in 2021, scoring as many race wins as the eventual champion Toprak Razgatlioglu and only missing out on a seventh championship crown by 13 points. Rea became the first rider to breach the barrier of 100 WorldSBK race wins that year.
In 2022 Rea was again top Kawasaki rider, finishing third and he would repeat this result last season on a new homologation of Ninja ZX-10RR. In 2023 Jonathan Rea posted a worthy third place in the Championship while in 2024, honours went to Alex Lowes achieving a string fourth Championship position that included winning two of the three opening races at Phillip Island in Australia.
The KRT Ninja ZX-10RR shares much of its DNA with the machines now on display in Kawasaki dealerships, underlining the production-derived ethos of the entire WorldSBK paddock.