Paul Bird Motorsport are a British motorcycle road racing, car racing and rallying organisation. From 2024, following owner Paul Bird's death in 2023, the motorcycle road racing operation was renamed Paul Bird Racing with Glenn Irwin as sole rider in British Superbike class.[2] Paul Bird had competed as a rally driver and a solo-rider in motocross. His son Frank is a car racer.[3]
Championship winning team principal, the late Paul Bird acknowledging the spectators' plaudits at Brands Hatch Showdown podium, end of BSB season 2014
PBM 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.
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 16 October 2015 Paul Bird Motorsport announced a sponsorship arrangement with Be Wiser Insurance and that the 2016 BSB team would be four-time BSB champion Shane Byrne and Glenn Irwin, riding Ducati Panigale Rs.[13] This sponsorship continued until the end of 2019 season. For 2020 and 2021, the team arranged a new title sponsor by Kent-based Video Telematics business VisionTrack,[14] followed by MCE insurance for 2022,[15] changing to BeerMonster from 2023.[16]
Personal life
In December 2015, Paul Bird received a ban from organised sport competitions until July 2017 administered by UKAD, the UK Anti-Doping agency, after failing a standard test for banned substances. He tested positive for cocaine after driving in a car rally event in July 2015.[17] This was followed by an eight-year ban imposed in 2019 by UKAD, for refusing a drugs-test following a Welsh rally event in April 2018. The ban will run from 11 July 2018 until 2026.[18]
For 2022, Frank Bird competed in Asian Le Mans Series,[20] having participated in some rally car driving during the winter,[21] and intends to enter the Sol Rally Barbados in June 2022, twice won by Paul Bird.[22]
Paul died on 1 September 2023 after a short illness aged 56.
MotoGP
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