World Superbike News

Stuart Easton 2008

The Kawasaki World Superbike team have been in Spain testing this week, with the British Superbike Hydrex Honda rider, Stuart Easton on board. Easton is helping with the set-up of the ZX-10R for the Kawasaki team at the Spanish Almeria circuit, as well as gaining some valuable track time himself.

Easton, was replaced in the BSB MSS Kawasaki team by James Hayden after suffering an horrific 181mph accident in qualifying at Snetterton in 2008, which left him with a broken wrist.  His former team boss, Bird wanted to give him as much track time as he could allowing him time to deal with certain niggly problems on the bike, leaving this years Kawasaki WSB riders Makoto Tamada and Broc Parkes, to concentrate on the bigger issues.

It was confirmed in World Superbike news this week that the Kawasaki team have secured a new sponsor in the form of SuperCasino.com, complimenting existing deals with Vent Axia, who remain with the team for their fifth consecutive year and Global Brands who will continue their loyalty with the WSB team for the eighth consecutive year.

The Supercasino.com is the latest brainchild of Martin Higginson who has a long association with Paul Bird and the Monstermob team.

After a couple of years absent from the sport Higginson said,

“Paul’s team will be a major player in this year’s World Championship so the time was right for us to link up again.  We wanted a professional and successful platform to continue the fantastic growth of our SuperCasino.com brand and I know Birdy’s the man to do that for us in WSB.  I’m delighted to be part of this and along with the other sponsors, I can’t wait to go racing.”

Paul Bird said,

“Martin and I have been friends for years and when he suggested coming on board, I leapt at the chance to work with him again.  We haven’t even discussed a budget yet but I’m sure that won’t be a problem and we hope for this to be another long-term association as when he’s with us, he brings us a lot of luck!”

Later this month the Kawasaki team will be testing at the Portimao circuit in Portugal, ahead of the first round of the 2009 Championship at Phillip Island in Australia on the 1st of March, where they will be hoping for some good World Superbike results to set them up for the rest of the season.