Suzuki/Kawasaki joint venture wins on debut.

The new Suzuki/Kawasaki joint venture 250cc 4-stroke Motocross machine, made a perfect competition debut at the first round of the All Japan MX Championship last week, by taking victory.

Suzuki and Kawasaki announced their unique joint development program for the new four-stroke machine earlier in the year and both factories will introduce production versions for 2004.

The honour of victory went to Kawasaki, courtesy of Tetsuya Mizoguchi, but both companies can take credit for beating Yamahas benchmark 250F, and Hondas devolvement model.

The Suzuki teams hopes were hit when test rider Yoshihide Fukudome was injured in a practice crash just two weeks before the first round. Yohei Kojima stepped in as a late replacement and with very little practice time on the machine recorded a series of top times in the official practice at the first round.

Unfortunately Kojima also suffered a number of crashes in his heat race and failed to qualify for the championship races.