Simon Andrews alongside Gary Mason at BSB Brands Hatch 2010

The Kawasaki team have now confirmed that Simon Andrews will be the replacement rider for the injured Chris Vermeulen at this weekends third round of the World Superbike Championship at Valencia in Spain.

Vermeulen is recovering from surgery on his knee following his accident at the opening round of the championship at Phillip Island in Australia.

Andrews has been testing with the team this week at Valencia and has now been given the chance to compete in the race alongside Tom Sykes.

WSB Valencia 2009

Many of the top World Superbike riders will begin testing today in a two-day test session at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, Spain.

Max Biaggi and Leon Camier will be on track to test the Aprilia Racing team bikes along with the teams test rider Alex Hofmann.

The Moto2 and the World Supersport series are also at the circuit this week, with the Hanspree Ten Kate Honda team hosting a full rider line-up from both the WSB and the WSS classes.  Jonathan Rea, Max Neukirchner, Kenan Sofuoglu and newcomer Michele Pirro will all be on hand to get to grips with the development of their machines.

Leon Haslam and Sylvain Guintoli will also be in attendance for the Suzuki Alstare team after both riders recently took part in a testing session in Australia.

James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow will both be putting their R1 machines through its paces for the Sterilgarda Yamaha team.

It is rumoured that Jakob Smrz will also be at the track to test the Aprilia despite their being no confirmation of a signing between the Guandalini Racing team and Aprilia.

The Althea Ducati team will not be making an appearance at the two-day test session as the riders Carlos Checa and Shane Byrne along with the rest of the team are still working on next seasons bikes after changing from Honda in 2009.