Paul Bird Motorsport

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Paul Bird Motorsport
File:PBM racing team logo.png
2016 name Be Wiser Ducati[1]
Base Penrith, Cumbria, England
Principal Paul Bird
Rider(s) 67 Shane Byrne
Glenn Irwin
Motorcycle Ducati Panigale R
Tyres Pirelli
Riders' Championships Shane Byrne x3
British Superbike 2003
British Superbike 2012
British Superbike 2014

Paul Bird Motorsport is a British motorcycle road racing and rallying organisation. The owner Paul Bird competed as a rally driver and was formerly a competitor in motocross.[2]

The team competes in the British Superbike Championship, using Ducati machinery for 2016,[1] a change of manuafacturer from Kawasaki. They managed the Kawasaki World Superbike team until 2011,[3] and competed in the 2012 MotoGP season with an ART-Aprilia bike entered to CRT regulations ridden by James Ellison.[4]

The team competed with riders Michael Laverty and Broc Parkes in the 2014 MotoGP season before disbanding to concentrate on British Superbikes.[5][6]

They also competed in the 2014 British Superbike Championship as a two-rider team with Shane Byrne and Stuart Easton on board Kawasakis.[7]

Also in 2014 Ian Hutchinson joined Paul Bird Motorsport for a few rounds of Pirelli National Superstock 1000 competition on the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki team, after which he again competed in the Macau road GP on Shane Byrne's superbike, but without his previous year's success, overshooting a corner and retiring after a low-speed fall.[8] The race was won by PBM rider Stuart Easton.

File:Paul Bird on Superbike podium cropped.jpg
Championship winning team principal Bird acknowledging the spectators' plaudits at Brands Hatch Showdown podium, end of BSB season 2014

For 2015 Hutchinson competed in selected BSB rounds and Paul Bird's first foray into racing on closed public roads in UK, involving the North West 200 and the Ulster Grand Prix in Northern Ireland and also in the Isle of Man TT races, where he won three TT races and a TT Championship.[9][10][11][12]

On 16th October 2015 Paul Bird Motorsport announced their partnership with Be Wiser Insurance and that the BSB team for 2016 would consist of four-time BSB champion Shane Byrne and Glenn Irwin, riding Ducati Panigale Rs.[13]

In December 2015, Paul Bird received a ban from organised sport competitions until July 2017 administered by UKAD, after failing a standard test for banned substances, undertaken after driving in a car rally event in July 2015.[14][15]

Bird's son Frank will drive in Ford MSA Formula for Fortec Motorsport in 2016, after the 2015 season in Ginetta Junior Championship.[16]

References

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External links