Two and Four Wheel American Adventure For Paul Bird Motorsport
In a unique scenario, the Paul Bird Motorsport Team will
be competing on both two wheels and four this weekend, in
entirely different disciplines, having made the trip over
the Atlantic to the United States and Caribbean respectively.
Round six of the Hannspree World Superbike Championship takes
place at the Miller Motorsports Park near Salt Lake City in
Utah with rider Gregorio Lavilla looking to continue his consistency
aboard the VK and Vent Axia-backed Honda Fireblade, whereas
team owner Paul Bird is hoping to end his car rallying career
in style by fulfilling a lifelong ambition by competing in
the prestigious SOL Rally Barbados in his Subaru Impreza WRC.
Remarkably, 34 year old Spanish rider Lavilla is the only
rider to have scored in every race of the championship so
far, with a best result of two seventh places despite having
to relearn many of the circuits, get reacquainted with a four
cylinder bike and get used to brand new Pirelli tyres. As
a result, the former British Superbike Champion lies in tenth
position in the title chase and is hoping that lack of knowledge
on his rivals' part may benefit him.
Penrith, Cumbria driver Bird, meanwhile, will renew his fierce
rivalry with friend and sponsor Steve Perez as the former
National Rally Champions go head to head around the tight
tarmac roads of the Caribbean island. Whenever the pair compete
together, there are usually no holds barred and despite Perez's
experience on the event, Bird is confident he can give him
a run for his money.
Gregorio Lavilla:
"I am feeling confident and I am looking forward to
the races. For everyone else, this will all be new but for
us, everywhere is new so perhaps we will start on an equal
footing for once. We are continuing to work on the bike to
be more competitive as we need to be challenging further up
the leaderboard and I hope that we will get some good results
this weekend. I hope Paul does well in his rally car too as
that would be a great weekend for the team if we both score
good results."
Paul Bird:
"I've never been able to compete on Rally Barbados,
mainly because it always clashed with our TT commitments but
I promised myself I'd do it before I retired and here I am.
It's been a long-term ambition of mine and I'm relishing the
opportunity of giving Steve a driving lesson round the island.
I've roped my championship winning co-driver Ian Windress
in for the weekend and put it like this, I'm not expecting
being the one to buy the drinks on Sunday night! This is my
final rally and after this I'm retiring so I aim to go out
in style!"
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