Kawasaki plans to directly manage its World Superbike team from 2012 season – WSBK news
Kawasaki announced its plans for the 2012 season of the World Superbike Championship recently during the German event held at Nurburgring.
The Japanese manufacturer has revealed that the collaboration with Paul Bird Motorsports will be ended by the 2011 season.
Kawasaki race manager, Ichiro Yoda said, “We have enjoyed three valuable years alongside the Paul Bird Motorsport team and we would like to put on record our sincere thanks for the time, effort and dedication they have shown to the Kawasaki World Superbike
racing programme.”
The manager for racing at Kawasaki also added that the decisions will be made directly at the headquarters of the company in Japan in the next season. Meanwhile, Yoda also hinted that the team operations will remain in Europe.
As the contract with Paul Bird Motorsports will be ended after this season, few names such as Team Pedercini, Supersonic Racing and MSS Colchester have been considered for the 2012 operations. Another name known to be favoured is Provec Motocard.com which
has been forting Kawasaki as a title challenger at World Supersport level.
Yoda added, “There are plans for much more tests in the future, and so from a European logistical perspective, Kawasaki's WSBK operating base will need to be close to the best circuits and good weather conditions, for practical reasons.”
The new change in the plans is also to reset the budget limit for the operations and make the team more of a factory team in the WSBK. Since the benchmark performance of the Kawasaki ZX-10R in the category, the company has moved to take control of the engineering
section of the team.
Yoda further added that the task to convert a new machine into a race winner is very hard and especially while competing for a world series.
The company is optimistic to position itself as a WSBK racer in the 2012 season while fulfilling the expectations of its fans.
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