News 1 Sep 2010

WSBK: Kawasaki gives Aussie Parkes 2010 lifeline in WSS

Aussie Broc Parkes will return to Kawasaki in World Supersport this weekend.

Aussie Broc Parkes will return to Kawasaki in World Supersport this weekend.

Australia’s Broc Parkes has received a lifeline for his 2010 season after this morning being confirmed as a guest rider on the Kawasaki World Supersport team at the Nurburgring in Germany this weekend.

Parkes split with the Echo CRS Honda team last week and has now been revealed as the replacement rider for Spaniard Joan Lascorz at Kawasaki, who was injured in a scary crash during the Silverstone round.

“I rode the bike recently at Almeria and despite the really hot track temperatures we got a lot of good work done and I had a chance to get used to riding the Ninja ZX-6R,” Parkes commented. “I’m really excited about this opportunity to have a team of that calibre give me a chance to ride at the front again.

“I had a pole and a podium in Germany in 2008, but it is hard to predict how things will be until I get back on the track with the rest of the Supersport guys. I have ridden for most of my career in Europe in Supersport and because of that I have competed against most of the guys who are still racing at the front.”

Parkes is a serial podium finisher and winner in WSS, and in the 2009 season raced for the Kawasaki Racing Team in World Superbike. He has a career total of five WSS wins to his credit so far.

The luckless Lascorz is still in hospital in Spain, having been under close observation until 11 August, with a drainage tube in his lung to relieve bleeding. Some degree of liver, spleen and stomach trauma was also suffered in the crash, although he did not need to undergo any operations on those vital organs.

Lascorz also lost skin from his thumb in his fall but skin graft surgery to repair this particular problem went to plan and the thumb is healing well. He also suffered five broken ribs and two injured scapula bones in his Silverstone crash, which cannot be operated on and are being left to recover naturally.

Parkes will partner Kawasaki regular Katsuaki Fujiwara in the factory Supersport team for at least this weekend’s German round of the series.

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