World Superbike News

Makoto Tamada

It has now been announced that the Paul Bird Motorsports team will be running the official Kawasaki world Superbike team for 2009.

Up until 2007, Bird was successful in the British Superbike championship series until he made the switch to World Superbikes in 2008 where he claimed the prize for the privateer’s title.

Bird said,

“It’s amazing how far we have come in a short space of time and it’s an honour to be representing one of the world’s leading manufacturers.

I remember watching the like of Scott Russell and Akira Yanagawa being championship contenders on Kawasaki’s a few years ago and that is where we need to be again.  In Makoto Tamada, we have a rider who has won in MotoGP and WSB and who has lots of experience which will be vital in the early days and they don’t come much more motivated than Broc Parkes.  For our small team from ‘Up North’ to be given opportunity is fantastic and we aim to repay Kawasaki with interest as this is the stuff of dreams.”

The European Race Planning Manager, Steve Gutteridge added,

“We have had many proposals from teams who wanted to run our official effort next year, which underlines our strong belief in our brand, and fills us with confidence that the Ninja ZX-10R has the ability to compete at the front of the pack once again.  PBM was chosen to represent us officially because Paul Bird has proved that by putting together a knowledgeable and closely-knit crew, great results can be achieved by working together in a structured way.  He’s shown this many times in BSB.  The team are also very motivated to use the official factory input from Kawasaki in association with their own substantial knowledge and will work closely with the riders, Tamada and Parkes, to get the most from them.

Along with the enthusiasm from the new team there will be an increased testing programme next year, both in the early season and between races.  The initial test machines are being created and developed fully at the factory in Japan.  This is another step towards full factory Kawasaki commitment to the World Superbike Championship.  We expect that the input and feedback between the team and Kawasaki, with regard to both communication and technical evaluation, will help in a correct final development schedule, which will allow the riders and the Ninja ZX-10R to step onto the podium next season.”