The Ten Kate Honda team have officially confirmed that they will compete in the 2004 Worl💟d Superbike Championship with the new Honda Fireblade and their newly-crowned World Superspo💜rt champion Chris Vermeulen.

"This is great news for our team, the championship, Chris Vermeulen and hopefully, when we achieve the success we desire, for Honda and its exciting new Fireblade machine," said team owner Gerrit Ten 🐷Kate.

"After winning the World Supersport Championship for the past two years it's great that we have a new target for 2004. The new Fireblade machine is made for racing, with its cas🍌sette-style gearbox, electronic steering damper and generic looks from the♋ RC211V," he added.

"We know Honda is happy this year with the CBR600RR taking t𓂃he rider and manufacturer titles in World Supersport. We want to try and give Honda the same success now in World Superb👍ike and, obviously, once again in the World Supersport Championship."

For 21-year-old Vermeulen, the chance to effectively pick up where Colin Edwards and ꧂the Castrol Honda SP2 finished in 2002 will be ⛄a massive opportunity, as the talented Australian's career rise continues.

"It's fantastic to get the chance to move into World Superbike," smiled Chris. "It's always been my dream to be able to move from World Supersport 🐓to World Superbike but to do it as chaღmpion is a special feeling.

"We know it's going to be 𒈔hard work getting a new machine dialled into 'new' circ♔uits every weekend but I'm very confident that the Ten Kate team will be able to achieve that," he added.

Honda were pre༺vented from running the Fireblade in their own official factory team due to disagreement with F𝐆GSport over the 2004 rules - something Ten Kate had no such problems with:

"The new World Superbike technical rules are a 🔥positive step for a team like mine, offering great, new opportunities, 🌸just as Supersport offers. This is the beginning of a new era of Superbike racing," Ten Kate enthused.

Yesterday, Ducati confirmed they will run Regis Laconi and James Toseland in their factory Fila backed team next year. While the Bologna based manufacturer is likely to be the only official outfit in🐻 2004, Ten Kate wil no doubt be receiving massive suport from Honda.