The Hannspree World Superbike Championship enters the second half of the season when round eight of the fourteen round series heads for the Italian Riviera next weekend (June 19/21). Misano is the setting and following on from their superb performances at Miller Motorsports Park in the USA last month, Paul Bird Motorsport Team riders Broc Parkes and Jamie Hacking will be looking to continue the good run of results for the Penrith, Cumbria-based team. In the continued absence of Makoto Tamada due to his broken wrist sustained at Monza, Aussie Parkes will be joined by three-time AMA champion Jamie Hacking once again aboard the pair of www.supercasino.com, Vent-Axia and Kick Energy-backed Kawasaki ZX-10Rs whereby both riders scored points in respective races in Miller. 27-year-old Parkes is now fully recovered from the shoulder injury he sustained during testing in the UK and is hoping to improve on his 18th place in the points standings whereas British-born Hacking, 37, scored both his and the team’s best ever WSB result with a fine 7th place in the opening race in the USA. Broc Parkes: “I’m feeling much fitter in myself after a few weeks break so I’m really looking forward to the Misano races. We left Miller feeling positive despite the results not really reflecting our bike development due to some bad luck but we know that the bike is getting better and better and our qualifying and race pace times are up there. I think the whole team is looking forward to some solid point scoring finishes and hopefully we can break back into the top ten.” Jamie Hacking: “I’m delighted that the team has asked to me to fill in for Makoto for both the Misano and Donington races. I’m really looking forward to racing the bike again and working with the PBM Kawasaki WSB team. I was hoping we could finish in the top ten in both races at Miller but events in race two didn’t go our way so I’m really looking forward to pushing myself to my full potential on the bike at Misano. I don’t know the track but I’m confident that we can have some really decent results over the next few races.”