Six teams up for official Kawasaki WSB

SIX teams have put their names forward in consideration to be the official Kawasaki WSBK squad.

Alongside the current Paul Bird Motorsport the candidates in the running for taking over the operation of the factory team in 2012 are: BSB team MSS Colchester, privateer-outfit Pedercini, Supersonic - who currently run Maxime Berger on a Ducati, Alstare and Motocard.

Technical director, Ichiro Yoda revealed in Motosprint.it that the Japanese manufacturer had received six notifications of interest and that the team to take over or continue the green mantle will be announced in August. Yoda said that the main goal for new ZX-10R next year is to 'aim even higher'.

The motivation to change the team in control of the official squad is from Kawasaki's disappointment of Paul Bird's team transport being found with large amounts of drugs, a handgun and ammunition in a customs check. Alongside the damage to Kawasaki's image from the incident, PBM have scored lacklustre results for a superbike that had high expectations at the beginning of the year.

The sight of Alstare in the mix comes from Francis Batta's despondency with the Suzuki factory, the Belgian team have had little-to-no input from Hamamatsu since their decline in results and fall from the top of the championship with Leon Haslam last season. Batta is also interested in working with the Pocket Rocket again - bringing him back after his struggles with the factory BMW outfit.

If Alstare were to gain the title of running the Kawasaki team, the result would see Suzuki dropped from the production series - reducing the number of brands taking part to six.