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Murray Sayle to retire from Kawasaki Australia after 32 years

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Murray Sayle Retiring from Kawasaki Motors Australia

Murray has a well-known passion for the Kawasaki brand. The green blood infiltrated Murray’s system in-full once he stepped on-board the H2R 750cc 3-cyclinder race bike for Ron Toombs in 1974.

Start of Unlimited Race at Amaroo Park, 1976. L to R; Warren Willing, Gregg Hansford, Murray Sayle, John Woodley, Greg Johnson.
Start of Unlimited Race at Amaroo Park, 1976. L to R; Warren Willing, Gregg Hansford, Murray Sayle, John Woodley, Greg Johnson.

“My proudest racing moment was winning the Australian Road Race Championship in 1978, but I still regret not winning the New Zealand Marlboro 250 series in 1977-78” – Murray Sayle

40 years since he raced fulltime on board the Kawasaki Ninja H2R, Australian racing identity and Kawasaki employee Murray Sayle will again take to the track onboard the iconic model
40 years since he raced fulltime on board the Kawasaki Ninja H2R, Australian racing identity and Kawasaki employee Murray Sayle again took to the track onboard the iconic model in 2014

Murray’s recent role at Kawasaki has been with the Marketing Department.

Murray Sayle

“It has been a fantastic journey here at Kawasaki over the past 32 years. I have worked with our great staff and dealers and made some life-long friends. I have been very lucky to have worked with our Japanese head office staff and visited Japan approximately 20 times. I have test ridden new products at the Auto Polis Race Course (Kyushu, Japan) the JARI Test track (Chiba, Japan) and the SPA Naoiri Race Track (Japan). I have taken Australian Journalists to world press launches, in Almeria, Spain, Auto Polis, Japan and Losail International Circuit, Doha, Qatar. Many good times and happy memories, thanks to Kawasaki.”

No fences here! Murray Sayle/Kawasaki KR250.
Murray Sayle – Kawasaki KR250 – Bathurst 1976

Across his Kawasaki career, Murray has made significant contributions to the in-house systems, enhanced the knowledge of co-workers and ensured the Kawasaki Dealers had support in place to grow the Kawasaki brand.

Murray Sayle - Barry Sheene Festival of Speed 2016 - Image by Mark Bracks
Murray Sayle – Barry Sheene Festival of Speed 2016 – Image by Mark Bracks

Murray brought his understanding of racing, brand belief and desire to win into Kawasaki every day, he officially retires on the 30th of June 2019 with his last day in the Kawasaki office on Wednesday 24th April 2019.

Shigemi Tanaka – Managing Director

“Kawasaki is built on people like Murray Sayle; people with passion, knowledge and integrity. On behalf of Kawasaki Motors Australia and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, I would like to express our deep appreciation for his great contribution to Kawasaki. I have always enjoyed talking with Murray about racing and hope we can continue to have these chats after his retirement.”

Murray Sayle - Hume Weir, 1976
Murray Sayle – Hume Weir, 1976

The knowledge, history, stories and dry humour will be missed by Kawasaki Motors Australia. Despite his retirement from his official role at Kawasaki Australia, I am sure that his passion will not have changed and when ever Murray talks road racing his attitude that if they are not on a Kawasaki but still winning, well then they must be cheating, will not change…  (LOL).

Source: MCNews.com.au