About PBM | Paul Bird Motorsport | British Superbike Team

The team stepped up to British Superbikes in 2000 with James Toseland before winning their first BSB race in 2001 as Steve Hislop claimed runner-up in the championship despite injury. ‘Hizzy’ won the team’s first BSB title the following year before Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne retained it for PBM in 2003.

PBM were also a major force on the international roads, where McGuinness and Joey Dunlop took wins at the TT as well as the team claiming successes at the North West 200, Daytona and Macau and scoring points as occasional 250cc and 500cc Grand Prix entrants.

The team continued to win races and titles in BSB but in 2008, a move to the World Superbike Championship beckoned for PBM who ended up running the official Kawasaki team, taking a victory with Tom Sykes. After four years, they then moved into the MotoGP paddock for three years to run a self-built PBM Aprilia in the CRT class where James Ellison was classified as a CRT race winner.

Whilst still running a MotoGP team, PBM also returned to the British Superbike Championship full time in 2014, which they won again with Byrne, and have since added three more titles to their unprecedented successes with Shakey landing the crown in 2017 before Scott Redding claimed it in 2019 and Josh Brookes in 2020 to make it an unprecedented eight in total so far.

Sadly, team owner Paul Bird wasn’t there to see his team clinch their ninth crown having passed away in September but the legacy he created continues with daughter Jordan and her twin brother Frank taking up the challenge. 2024 sees the new era emerge with Glenn Irwin as a sole rider aboard Ducati machinery whose aim it is to win the British Superbike Championship after narrowly missing out the two previous seasons.

Glenn will also contest the International North West 200 as he hopes to continue his unbeaten run of eight Superbike races at the event. Frank Bird will also continue his four-wheeled career having been announced as one of the prestigious AMG Junior drivers for the official Mercedes AMG Motorsport Team and will be contesting a number of events in Europe in a factory-supported Mercedes AMG GT3.

The 24-year-old twins have taken over the mantle from their dad Paul, who died in September 2023. Having been involved with motorsport all their lives, having attended their first race meeting at Cadwell Park aged just six days old, the pair have a wealth of knowledge passed down from their father as well as their mum Karen’s family, who ran the Reve Racing Team which started in the 1990s. Both Jordan and Frank have worked wonders to get PBM Racing Team to the grid for 2024 as they look to continue the PBM legacy of success.