With the Riders’ Championship and a some other season-long awards still to be decided on the eighth and final round of the season, Carter Thompson (Füsport - RT Motorsports by SKM Kawasaki) ended the first day of Jerez action as the pole position rider, despite having a crash at T6 early the Superpole session.

His eventual 1’52.067 ‘winning’ lap time was a new track best for this class, and gave him his first Superpole trophy since he started racing in WorldSSP300 at Round Three, in Czechia, earlier this year.

Second place in Superpole qualifying was title-chaser Veneman and third Jose Manuel Osuna Saez (Deza - Box77 Racing Kawasaki), giving Kawasaki a clean-sweep on the front row starting grid for Race One.

Drama of an unfortunate kind befell one-time championship challenger Inigo Iglesias Bravo (Füsport - RT Motorsports by SKM Kawasaki) who fell and suffered a right ankle dislocation and a fibula fracture in Saturday’s morning warm-up session. He was, of course, declared unfit and missed the rest of the final round.

Race One was the usual high speed rolling maul of audacious moves and high pace, punctuated by periods of near-chaos and jeopardy.

From the start Thompson was baulked and had to fight back into podium contention from 12th on lap one, while fellow front row starter Veneman had to battle hard throughout just to stay in the top few positions at times.

Mirko Gennai (MTM Kawasaki) was pushed wide and off track early on and was too far back to be able to run up front and help his team-mate Veneman with his championship ambitions. Despite his bad luck he set the fastest lap of Race One, and with it pole position for Race Two. With three fastest laps over the year, he was awarded the Pirelli ‘Best Lap’ award for 2024.

The top Kawasaki finisher in the opening race was local rider, Antonio Torres (ProDina Kawasaki Racing) in fourth place, just 0.009 seconds from a podium finish.

Next up on a Ninja 400 was Veneman, fighting for his championship life as he crossed the finish line fifth. He was punished with a one place drop of position for irresponsible riding down the main straight on the last lap and demoted to sixth.

Thompson was the last Ninja 400 rider inside the Race One top ten, in ninth place. The pole setter was on strong form in the race but he had to use a lot of skill and energy to recover from his first lap incident.

Jose Manuel Osuna Saez (Deza - Box77 Racing Kawasaki) fell after losing the front and was finally ranked 27th, scoring no points.

In the second race at the season finale, over another 11 hot laps of the classic Spanish venue, the calculation for Veneman was simple. He had to win the race. Whatever else happened would be out of his hands but if championship leader Mahendra dropped enough points, Veneman could be champion. In any circumstance, Loris had to win to overhaul his rival’s points total, even if Mahendra no-scored in Race Two.

Loris showed maturity beyond his years to stay in leading contention, despite the action of some other riders who forced him to take avoiding action more than once. He went from second on the penultimate lap to fifth after he was baulked into the final corner and lost his chance of at least a final race victory. Mahendra, the new champion, finished one place behind him in sixth.

The top Kawasaki rider in Race Two was Torres, adding to his Race One fourth with a visit to the podium in second place. He was just 0.028 seconds from the race win.

With Veneman fifth, and Iglesias Bravo unable to start after his earlier injury, Osuna Saez was the next best Kawasaki runner, finishing in seventh.

Gennai, Thompson and Fenton Seabright (Kawasaki GP Project) were all fallers in Race Two, and unable to add to their championship total in the last of what were 16 often frenetic races through the 2024 season.

In total, four different Kawasaki Ninja 400 riders - Iglesias Bravo, Veneman, Gennai and Daniel Mogeda (Team 109 Kawasaki Retro traffic Kawasaki) - shared ten races wins between them this season. Kawasaki had four riders inside the top ten places.

The final championship standings for 2024 have Mahendra on 221 points, Veneman on 200 and Iglesias Bravo on an unchanged 163. Gennai was finally seventh in the championship, with 131 - just a single point from a top five finish.

Kawasaki had already earned its sixth Manufacturers’ World Championship before the championship even got to the final round in Spain.

More success came for Ninja 400 riders in the Teams’ Championship, with MTM Kawasaki (with riders Veneman and Gennai) winning that title from Team BrCorse Yamaha.

The 2025 championship is scheduled to host another eight rounds, and will get underway at Portimao in Portugal in late March.

Rider Comments

Loris Veneman (MTM Kawasaki), stated: “Obviously, I had hoped to take first position in the championship this weekend but it is something we cannot change anymore. In the beginning of Race One I could go really easily into the front positions, but later I made a little mistake and went wide, then lost seven or eight places. From then on it was really hard to come back. And I just could not overtake them on the straight. I had to dive bomb them every corner to overtake them, which did not make me much faster when I did that. It was the only way we could get forward. I got a P6 in the end. It was hard with the wildcard riders because they didn’t care that I even had a chance about the championship. I gave it my all in the second race but basically the same thing happened. I was really good in Race Two but I couldn’t finish where I had ridden for almost the whole race. I almost got taken out in the last corner, which was not good. I still finished fifth. I wasn’t happy with the result but the race itself was pretty good.”

Mirko Gennai (MTM Kawasaki), stated: “Race One was not the best race of the year but I did the fastest lap which gives me the Pirelli award for the highest number of fastest laps in races. And that lap put me on pole for Sunday’s race. I tried to do my job for Kawasaki and to help my team-mate Loris, but someone put me in the gravel on the first lap of Race One and that left me outside the main battle for the first race.”

Carter Thompson (Füsport - RT Motorsports by SKM Kawasaki), stated: “The Superpole lap was very good and I felt comfortable with the bike. Friday in general was pretty good, everything was going to plan, except for a front wash-out at the apex. I was just going a little bit too much brake pressure at the apex of the corner, and just tucked the front. A simple mistake but I was able to get to the pits and get back for another lap. Race One was not the race I wanted. On lap one another rider crashed in front of me and I had to avoid him. I had to drop back a long way and then catch up. On the last lap, in the final corner, I got pushed wide and couldn’t get drive onto the straight. Definitely not the race I wanted.”

Jose Manuel Osuna Saez (Deza - Box77 Racing Kawasaki), stated: “In Race One I did not know what happened when I fell. In all the races I have problems with the front closing, so I do not know that crash happened. I had not a bad race on Sunday but it was a crazy group where some of them were fighting for the title. It is what it is but one rider almost made me crash on the straight. This is not normal. This is not racing.”

Antonio Torres (ProDina Kawasaki Racing), stated: “In Race One, after a collision on the second lap with another rider, I ended up off the track. Upon rejoining, I immediately started to make up ground, even leading the race for a few laps, without managing to break away. In the strategy of the last laps I decided to stay behind the leading group to play for everything in the final lap. Unfortunately, at T6, another contact forced me to slow down to avoid falling. However, I continued to push until the last corner, where I came out third, but right at the finish line I was overtaken by another rider using my slipstream and I finished in fourth position. I am extremely happy and excited about the Race Two result, my first podium in the World Championship. It was an intense and hard-fought race, typical of this class. With two laps to go I found myself slightly behind due to a contact with another rider, but I managed to recover ground and at the last corner I seized the opportunity, taking advantage of a contact between some other riders, and I managed to take second position.”

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