John Burrows weighing up options for season ahead as doubts linger over Ulster races

Spiralling insurance costs have hit the sport hard and former racer Burrows, who owns the Burrows Engineering/RK Racing team, is weighing up his options for his riders Mike Browne and his own son, Jack.

There is still hope the North West 200 will go ahead in May, while the Isle of Man TT, Southern 100 and Manx Grand Prix will run along with the Scarborough meetings at Oliver’s Mount in England.

Burrows said: “If most of the races get cancelled then I’ve a bit of a plan in my head on how we can put a year together.

“We have dabbled our toe in short circuits last year with Jack and obviously brought Mike to a few as well, and Mike can ride a short circuit equally as well as he can ride a road race.

“The plan this year was never to fully commit to every road race anyway because there were certain road races last year when the grids were poor, and you knew before the flag dropped that it was the [Michael] Sweeney-Browne show,” he added.

“That’s not being disrespectful to anyone at those races because it takes everyone, but road racing was really struggling last year, especially at some of the smaller southern races.

“I would love to see the North West 200 go and I’m still holding out hope that some sort of a deal can be done. So if you had the North West and the TT, it wouldn’t be just as bad.

“The TT is the focus of our whole year as a team and we were also for doing the Southern 100 this year, and some races in Scarborough.

“We’ll also maybe do a few short circuits at Knockhill or Anglesey, or we might even dabble our toe in the British championship,” added Burrows.

“That’s where I’m going with Jack in 2024 with the British Talent Cup, so it would be a good chance to go and have a look.”

Burrows has purchased the ex-Ian Hutchinson TAS Racing BMW M1000RR machines for Browne to ride this year alongside a top-spec Yamaha R6.