Kawasaki surprises: The best Japanese manufacturer with the oldest superbike

The summer break in the 2026 Superbike World Championship runs until Magny-Cours in early September, and unlike a year ago, Garrett Gerloff is able to enjoy the break from racing. That’s because his position in the overall standings is reassuring: 8th place with 110 World Championship points after eight of twelve rounds looks significantly better than the 15th-place finish with 88 points at the end of the 2025 season.

Although the ZX-10RR is the oldest bike on the grid, Kawasaki has actually closed the gap and, with Gerloff, is ahead of all the factory riders from Japanese rivals Yamaha and Honda, as well as several Ducati customer riders considered to be stronger, such as Alvaro Bautista. Instead of just five single-digit results last year, the 31-year-old has now secured twelve top-nine finishes with four rounds (12 races) still to go. At Most and Donington, the Texan scored points in all three races, which is no mean feat.

Garrett Gerloff’s only weakness is in qualifying

Gerloff’s weak point remains Superpole, as in the highly competitive Superbike category a grid position in the first three rows is hugely important, but the Kawasaki rider only managed this in Australia and the Czech Republic. “It’s extremely tight in the midfield at the moment. I was just two tenths of a second behind fifth place and qualified eleventh,” said Gerloff, referring to his narrow deficit most recently at Donington.

The Kawasaki works team has been managed by Puccetti Racing since 2025. Their growing experience is contributing to the improvements achieved. “The team is doing a great job. We’ve tweaked the bike’s settings, adjusted the electronics and so on. It’s always good when we finish the weekend with the best set-up,” said Gerloff, praising his crew ahead of the summer break. “I felt I’d really got the best out of it that I could have achieved. It was great to cross the finish line and be within a second of Alex and Axel. We were happy to take the top-six finish.”

Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani are Bimota’s factory riders, and as the KB998 is powered by a Kawasaki engine, they serve as Gerloff’s benchmark. The American will continue to be Kawasaki’s figurehead next year.