Herbertson Links up With Burrows for TT

Burrows Engineering by RK Racing has announced that Dominic Herbertson will ride for the team at this year’s TT.

Herbertson replaces the outgoing Mike Browne and will ride the team’s BMW M 1000 RR in the Superbike,  Superstock and Senior TT Races, as well as a Yamaha YZF-R6 in the two Supersport Races.

Led by former TT racer John Burrows, the decision to sign an established rider in Herbertson – who lapped at over 130mph average for the first time in 2023 – marks a move away from the team’s position of fielding riders in the earlier stages of their road racing careers, with the likes of Dan Kneen, Jamie Hamilton, Malachi Mitchell-Thomas, Davey Todd and Browne all being brought through the ranks with Burrows’ highly-professional outfit.

John Burrows, Burrows Engineering by RK Racing Team Owner: ‘When Mike left, the cards were back on the table in terms of what direction to go in. We’ve become known as a team that brings younger riders into road racing, enabling them to find their feet and then, hopefully, move onto bigger and better things. Whilst that’s a nice challenge, it’s also a difficult one, especially with attracting sponsors and the like.

‘It felt as though the time was right to try a different approach and, in Dom, we’ve got an experienced guy with proven ability who we want to help get further up the sharp end. Dom’s ridden for us before, winning the Supersport Race at Tandragee in 2022 in a one-off ride, so we got chatting. He’s done the hard yards in racing, doing a lot of it on his own so he appreciates what he’s got. He knows us and we know him, so things soon fell into place.’

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Herbertson, who made his TT debut in 2014, now has twelve top-10 finishes to his name, with nine of those coming in the last two years. Seventh in last year’s opening Supertwin Race is his best result to date, going one better than he did in the 2023 Superbike Race and three races in 2022.

The tree surgeon-turned-racer-turned-podcast host had no hesitation in accepting Burrows’ offer:

Dominic Herbertson: ‘When John picked up the phone and gave me a call, I was only expecting he wanted some trees cutting down. It took some time to sink in that he was offering me a seat in one of the most competitive teams in road racing.

After pre-season testing in Spain, Herbertson will contest the opening British Supersport Championship round in mid-April whilst they also plan to contest the North West 200 in preparation for the TT, with the Southern 100 Races and selected Irish National Road Races seeing out the remainder of the 2024 season.