As this year is shaping up to be a wild one – at least as far as the future of personal watercraft racing is concerned – we’ve seen companies of all shapes and sizes scramble to decide where to send their sponsored riders. Of the three OE manufacturers, Kawasaki has remained the most withdrawn from the racing world. With fewer and fewer riders brandishing the iconic Kawi Green hue on the water, some have begun to fear for the worst.
Thankfully, those fears can be assuaged for the most part. Kawasaki USA has formally announced the return of reigning sponsored Kawasaki rider Craig Warner (who previously relocated from his Corona, California home to Lithia Springs, Georgia to man one of the many Mountain Motorsports stores famously owned by Dustin Farthing and Ryan Hardwick before leaving to captain WWR Racing), as well as unveiling the world champ’s 2015 race schedule.
Kawasaki’s reported, “Craig Warner has flown the Kawasaki Jet Ski flag in competition with glowing results. The multi-time world champion is a force to be reckoned with in endurance racing as well, as he rides his Kawasaki Jet Ski Ultra 310R at peak levels.”
Unsurprisingly, Warner will represent the Big K at next month’s 11th annual Mark Hahn Memorial Havasu 300 (which Warner famously conquered twice before), the grueling Long Beach-to-Catalina Offshore Championship in July, wherein he reigns the all-time champion, having won 5 times (with three wins consecutively), and a presence at this year’s IJSBA World Finals in October.
