Dominic Herbertson signs with Northern Ireland team Burrows Engineering/RK Racing for 2024 North West 200 and Isle of Man TT

The 32-year-old will compete on BMW M1000RR machinery in the Superbike and Superstock classes and a Yamaha R6 in the Supersport races.

Herbertson previously rode for the Dungannon-based team at the Tandragee 100 in 2022 – winning a wet Supersport race – and the North West 200 in the same year as a replacement for Mike Browne, who had been injured in a crash at the Cookstown 100.

The Hexham man will also contest the Supertwin races at the TT.

He joined the 130mph club at the TT last June, finishing eighth in the Superbike race. Herbertson also claimed three top-ten results in the Supersport, Superstock and Supertwin classes.

He will also compete at the Cookstown 100, Southern 100, Armoy and selected meetings at Oliver’s Mount in Scarborough.

Herbertson said: “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.

“I have been in the very fortunate position of working with the team in the past and not only do they have competitive machinery, they also have a perfect balance of professionalism and enjoyment both on and off track.

“I have so many people to thank for getting me to this point in my racing career and without them I wouldn’t be looking at 2024 becoming an incredibly exciting year for me! I cannot wait to get started and seize this opportunity."

Team owner Burrows said his latest signing would allow the team to “hit the ground running” this year.

“Dom has had numerous top 10 finishes at the TT and he’s now done a 130mph lap, so it's a great starting point for us,” he said.

“For years we have taken on riders who maybe haven’t been all that well established – not that anyone we did take on was completely green – but it gets to a point where it’s nice to be going to the TT knowing you have a rider capable of getting some strong results, like we had with Mike Browne last year.

“He’s had a lot of hard years on big bikes when he was more or less doing it on his own. In the last couple of years Dom has been with Fran Cowton on the 600 and Supertwin, which has been a tremendous help to him.

“He’s disappointed that he has to move on from that but Fran understands that hopefully this will help Dom make another step forward in his career,” Burrows added.

“It got to a point where I ran out of energy for bringing in a not-so-well-known rider and now I want to get results for the team.

“We proved last year that we have the bike and infrastructure to do a job when we went to Macau with a rider [Davey Todd] who was able to put it on the podium and at one stage looked like fighting for a win.

“It’s nice to have a rider, like Derek (Sheils) in the past, Mike last year and now Dom, who can put us on that platform where we are going to be noticed.”

Herbertson is also set to compete in the opening round of the British Supersport Championship at Navarra in Spain, where Burrows’ schoolboy son Jack – the 2023 Ulster Moto3 champion – will make his debut in the British Talent Cup class.

“Dom has always been a rider that I had looked at and thought we needed to think seriously about bringing him in if there was a spare seat in the team,” Burrows said.

“Whenever Mike decided to leave the team I thought about Dom first, even if we had conversations with other riders.

"He ticks the boxes for what we want to do and we can bring him to the Cookstown 100, the North West 200 and TT, Armoy, Scarborough – he can ride all those circuits well.

“It’s nice to be in a position where we can hit the ground running hopefully.”