Prior to the British Superbike season opener at Brands Hatch this weekend, Simon Andrews will be swapping his MSS Colchester Kawasaki Superbike for the WSB machine of the Paul Bird Kawasaki Racing Team during their two-day test at Valencia this week.

The twenty-five year old Evesham rider will step in for the injured Chris Vermeulen during the test. Andrews has a year of experience on the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R Superbike and knows the machine extremely well.

Simon Andrews will swap his MSS Colchester-liveried Kawasaki for a Paul Bird-branded model this week at Valencia

The test is extremely useful to the MSS team, giving more track time to Simon ahead of the British Superbike opener this Easter weekend at Brands Hatch. The test also shows the very close relationship between the two teams which was highlighted over the winter as MSS inherited the WSB squad’s Magneti Marelli advanced engine management system.

Andrews has impressed the Kawasaki racing family, having given the UK squad their best recent British Superbike Championship position of sixth last year and regularly mixing it with the top riders through the season. Andrews said, “This really is a great opportunity and I intend to give the team as much feedback as possible. It also gives me valuable track time prior to the season opener at Brands next weekend.”

MSS Colchester Kawasaki Team Owner, Nick Morgan, added, “We’re supportive of Simon helping with the testing at Valencia and we think it’s a win-win situation. Ultimately it helps Paul Bird to have another viewpoint on the bike, it gives Simon a great opportunity to showcase his skills and it will possibly give us more direction and a race focused rider.”

Simon has a very busy period ahead as he tests at Valencia, races at the Easter Friday-Monday meeting at Brands Hatch, before the second British round at Thruxton, all in a two week gap.

MSS Colchester Kawasaki have used the winter break to show their British Superbike intentions with the addition of the latest spec WSBK Magneti Marelli electronics package.

Team owner Nick Morgan visited the Kawasaki World Superbike outfit of Paul Bird Motorsport to collect the valuable electronics systems, which the squad believes will help them bridge the gap to the best funded, factory-backed teams. The system has been extensively developed by PBM’s engineers Phil Borley and Stuart Bland, which gives the MSS Colchester a development short-cut with the new equipment. The Magneti Marelli Marvel system [Download product description pdf here] handles all on-board electronics to tackle both data collection and system management, with a myriad of data logging and fine tuning options available.

MSS Colchester team owner Nick Morgan (center) with 2010 riders Gary Mason and Simon Andrews

Electronics have become a big factor in modern racebike development and it has become apparent that big horsepower is not always enough if it cannot be controlled adequately, especially on tight, technical circuits such as some of those seen in the British Superbike Championship. The MSS Colchester squad now intend to utilize their new tools as well as special swing arms and chassis upgrades with extensive dyno and track development over the winter.

The official Kawasaki UK British Superbike entry recently announced their 2010 rider line-up of Simon Andrews and Gary Mason, both of which are excited to be using the new system.

Nick Morgan , MSS Colchester Kawasaki Team Owner:
“From a technical point of view we’re so excited to be using the latest spec World Superbike electronics and as motivation we know we now have the best kit available, so there’s no excuses! I can’t thank Birdy and his team enough for giving us such amazing hardware, especially as they have put in huge development time over the course of the year. The kit is straight off Broc Parkes machine which he used so effectively at Brands Hatch, so we know it works well there and that’s where we race!”

The Hannspree World Superbike Championship moves into the final stages when round twelve of the fourteen round series heads for the legendary Imola circuit in Italy this forthcoming weekend (September 25 – 27).

Paul Bird Motorsport's Broc Parkes

After a disappointing weekend in Germany last time out which saw both Paul Bird Motorsport riders, Broc Parkes and Makoto Tamada, involved in an opening corner accident, which ruled the Japanese rider out of the meeting with concussion and left Australian Parkes to race his spare machine, both are hoping for a strong showing at Imola.

Makoto Tamada

27-year-old Parkes has a good record at the Italian track and is confident of success whereas 32-year-old Tamada is looking to salvage something from a disastrous, injury-ridden season aboard the www.supercasino.com, Vent-Axia, Kick Energy and Henleys-backed Kawasaki Superbike Racing Team Ninja ZX-10Rs.

Meanwhile, team boss Paul Bird will be hoping he can bring some silverware of his own to the team in the final two rounds of the World Rally Championship.

For the Salou-based Rally de Espagne on October 2/4th and Rally GB which starts in Cardiff some three weeks later, the Cumbrian has been drafted into the official Munchi’s Ford World Rally Team alongside Argentine driver Federico Villagra whereby he will drive a works Ford Focus WRC as one of the ten ‘A’ seeded drivers.

Broc Parkes:  “I’m looking forward to the Imola race as I have had podiums in WSS there before and also a couple of top tens in WSB. I really enjoy the circuit and it has a great atmosphere. Nurburgring was a tough weekend after I was taken out in the first race and I was lucky not to break any bones, but I had skin taken off my bottom which made it uncomfortable to ride but I’m feeling good now and ready to race. For Imola, we have some more things to try on the bike so I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes. Each race we seem to be making progress and I would really like to be back in the top ten in Imola.”

Makoto Tamada:  “The test went well earlier in the season at Imola and I am pretty confident about the circuit. We were still relatively behind the leaders in terms of lap times at the test, but the bike feeling has improved significantly since then and I was confident on the race set-up at Nurburgring but unfortunately the crash in race one took me out of both races. I have no significant injury and my broken finger from Brno is healed so I am 100% fit for Imola. If the bike works well as it did in Brno and Nurburgring, the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R should finish in an easy top ten. I guess it depends on me if we can finish in the top five, or even on the podium.”