Johnston switches from BMW to Honda for TT 2023 campaign

Lee Johnston on Honda for 2023

After a nasty TT in 2022, Ashcourt Racing’s Lee Johnston is hoping that switching from BMW to Honda machines for the big races at the 2023 Isle of Man TT Races will help him finish on the podium. optical.

Johnston and team purchased Glenn Irwin’s secondhand Fireblade CBR1000RR-RR from Honda Racing’s official kit and are set to race the bikes in the RST Superbike, RL360 and Milwaukee Senior races later this year.

Winner of the inaugural Supersport race in 2019, Johnston hopes a move to the Fireblade will lift him even higher up the leaderboards in the big-displacement races and complement his challenge in the race. Monster Energy Supersport and Bennetts Supertwin Races, where he will again feature among the favorite winners for the honor.

“We had a bit of trouble with the big bikes last year, electrical issues and stuff like that, it’s really embarrassing when I’m running in the top 4 in both the Superbike and the Superbike Races. Superstock,Johnston explained. “Going up that high just to have problems is very frustrating.

“You just have to look around the training ground on both the roads and the short distances to see that the Honda Fireblade is popular with many riders and quite a few guys have used it with great success recently. That tells me this bike has a good base chassis and it’s a well-rounded package so it’s well worth a try at this year’s TT..”

That feeling was confirmed for Johnston in recent tests at Spain’s Monteblanco and Andalusian circuits.

“It has changed a lot since I last drove a Honda in 2018. The newer model feels really nice and smooth,“He explained.”It also feels compact and the fact that it’s nice and compact gives a small rider like me a lot of confidence right away. I feel really comfortable about it.”

Although considered a smaller cyclist, Johnston took to the TT podium for the first time in Superstock when he finished third behind Ian Hutchinson and Michael Dunlop in 2015, and he is determined to get good results. on Fireblade this time:

“It’s pretty funny to be on the Superstock podium with Hutchy and Michael, but I want to try my hand at big bikes this year, especially since things were going well last year before I got into trouble. try. I was able to finish the lap at 130 mph from the start, and while there’s still a few mph left for that to happen, I’d love to be on the big bike podium again.

“It’s not going to be easy when you see the likes of Michael finish on the podium in the Senior Race, like he did last year. That shows you how hard it is to get to the finish line on the Superbike podium but the more distance we go, the better chance we have..”

It is very likely that Johnston will take part in some rounds of the early season British Superstock Championship, along with the British Supersport Championship on his familiar Yamaha YZF-R6.

Johnston will also participate in two Bennetts Supertwin Races and hopes to be more competitive this year in his Aprilia RS660:We finished second in last year’s race but didn’t really deserve the podium, so we developed this bike over the winter to get more power out of it. I want to be competitive and really ‘join’ the race this time to close the gap with the runners ahead. I’m not sure if Mr. Paton is Peter [Hickman] and Michael riding last year will be in the race, but you have to hit 120 mph to win the race no matter what you’re riding, so that should be the goal.“