Fuchs Kawasaki sets new world record.

It may not be setting the superbike world alight in the face of competition from Ducati and Honda, but the Fuchs Kawasaki team can lay claim to having helped German daredevil Dirk Auer set a new world speed record of 270.0kph.

What makes Auer - and Fuchs' - achievement all the more remarkable, however, is that Auer was behind - not aboard - the Kawasaki ZX-12R involved in the attempt.

Kawasaki Motors Germany came to his assistance, allowing him access to the Lausitzring in conjunction with their Ninja Cup Training, and drafting in experienced Fuchs superbike rider Akira Yanagawa as the perfect rider choice to pilot the bike - while Auer was towed behind it on rollerblades!

The event was held on the newly developed high speed oval at Lausitzring, with its 2.5km straights and wide open banked turns. Timing lights were set up just before the braking makers to calculate the maximum speeds as required to ratify a world record attempt, and Auer would be towed behind a standard Kawasaki ZX-12R with a specially rigged handle behind the pillion seat.

The German had specially developed rollerblades, fitted with five wheels and ski style boots in order to help his attempt, while Dunlop designed prototype wheels capable of handling the extremes of temperatures generated from friction at such high speeds.
Even small cooling ducts were added around the wheels to improve in cooling. For safety, Yanagawa was asked to keep the Kawasaki's speed around the banking to 140kph, and thus limit some of the heat generated on the wheels.

"I'm ecstatic at being able to set such a fast speed," Auer said afterwards, "It's much more of an adrenalin rush behind a bike compared to a car. When we first started talking to Kawasaki Motor, we were planning about 260kph, so 270 was just a bonus. I'm not sure if this will be my last try behind a bike, however, as I would like to break 300kph!"

"I thought I was crazy, but now I've met someone crazier than me," an awestruck Yanagawa admitted, "When I was first asked to help Dirk, I thought it sounded a little dangerous but, when we were introduced, he was so professional. This gave me the confidence that safety was high on his priorities. The front of the bike was a little light under hard acceleration but, apart from that, I couldn't feel any differences.

"I gave him a couple of runs through the lights just to see if he was able to hang on. He gave me the okay so, on the third run, I just wound on the throttle as far as I could, changing through the gears like my ZX-7RR Fuchs superbike. To Dirk's credit, he was able to hang on! Now I've got the bug and would love to be able to break the 300kph run."