 His impressive results earned him an invitation from the Kawasaki factory to race one of their motorcycles in the Japanese Grand Prix.Simmonds convinced Kawasaki management to loan him a motorcycle to compete in the 125cc Grand Prix world championships.In an era of unrestricted rules, the Kawasaki KR1 125cc twin cylinder was outclassed by the expensive, V4 engines used by the Yamaha racing team and the square four engines used by Suzuki.