Bournemouth Kawasaki boss Pete Extance has stood his team down as the manufacturer’s official Bennetts British Superbike squad and is evaluating whether to continue into 2020 on a smaller scale.

Extance and his crew have been the official Kawasaki team since 2017 but made the decision to relinquish the honour in order to concentrate on his business. Danny Buchan’s FS-3 will move into the number one spot.

“For the last four years we have been asked by Kawasaki UK to open another dealership in nearby Hampshire which is an open point for Kawasaki and an important area for motorcycle sales,” said Extance.

“So far, we have managed to hold off opening a new shop but we feel that now the time is right and we need to make the move, or another dealer may be appointed by Kawasaki UK which wouldn’t make good business sense.

We have had two amazing seasons in 2017 and 2018 as the official team, culminating in winning the BSB title with Leon Haslam last year which was the proudest racing moment for our Bournemouth Kawasaki squad.”

The 2019 BSB season has not gone according to plan for the team but Extance said this has nothing to do with his decision.

“If we do decide to carry on racing, the options are to continue in the BSB championship on a much smaller scale or just concentrate on the roads.

“Whatever we decide I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all my staff for their incredible hard work, along with Kawasaki UK for entrusting us with the official team, and all of our sponsors who are still standing by us waiting for us to confirm our plans for 2020.”