The Paul Bird Motorsport Team heads for the historic venue of Assen in the Netherlands this weekend for round three of the World Superbike Championship hoping to continue the great showing at Donington Park a couple of weeks ago.

There, the Kawasaki Superbike Racing Team duo of Yorkshireman Tom Sykes and Spanish rider Joan Lascorz caused a stir aboard the brand new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R at the Penrith-based team's home round with Sykes grabbing a sensational front row start and Lascorz bringing the machine home to its best result so far of fifth.

Sykes was also challenging for a podium when he crashed out in the opening race so the pair arrive at Assen full of confidence whereby the team is bolstered by the returning Chris Vermeulen.

The 28-year-old former World Supersport Champion and MotoGP race winner rode at Donington Park during practice but the team deemed his injured knee still not good enough to race but the Aussie is determined to be back in action after seeing his team-mates do so well last time out.

Last year, Sykes and Vermeulen encountered problems and scraped just a handful of points between them in both Superbike races but Lascorz did better with runner-up spot in the World Supersport race so hopes are high of some good results.

Paul Bird, Team Owner:

"We showed we had good pace at Donington and Tom proved that with a great ride during Superpole to get on the front row but was unlucky to crash out of race one when well placed. Joan did brilliantly to bring the bike home in fifth in race two and I expect both riders to be challenging for podiums again this weekend. It was very important Chris rode at Donington and has had further time to recuperate so I'm hopeful he'll be able to be competitive too. Kawasaki's last win in World Superbikes came here five years ago so it's about time there was another one."

The opening race gets underway on Sunday 17th April at 12.00 with race two at 15.30 and British viewers can catch the action live on British Eurosport.

Meanwhile, team owner Paul Bird will have a hectic weekend as prior to flying out to Holland on Saturday evening, he will be in action on round three of the BTRDA Rally Championship when he contests the Somerset Stages.

Bird holds second place in his Ford Focus WRC following the opening two rounds of the series and although he his making his debut on the Minehead-based event, he is hopeful of a good result to bolster his title aspirations.