Lee Johnston gives thumbs-up to new Honda Fireblade after Spanish tests as Isle of Man TT preparations commence

The Fermanagh man, who completed two tests at Monteblanco and Andalucia in Spain in readiness for the new season, is impressed with the latest CBR1000RR-R after previously riding for the official Honda Racing squad in 2018.

“It’s changed massively since I last rode a Honda in 2018,” said the Northern Ireland rider, who has secured the ex-Glenn Irwin Fireblades from Honda Racing UK for 2023.

“The newer model feels really nice and smooth. It feels small too and the fact it’s nice and compact gives a small rider like myself a lot of confidence straightaway. I felt really comfortable on it.

“You only have to look around the paddock at both the roads and the short circuits to see that the Honda Fireblade is favoured by a lot of riders, and quite a few guys have been going well on it lately.

“That tells me the bike has a good base chassis and it’s a good package all round so it’s worth trying at this year’s TT.”

Johnston has relied on BMW power in the bigger capacity classes in recent years with his Ashcourt Racing team, but he hopes the switch to the new Fireblade this year will enable him to stake his claim for the podium spots.

He previously finished on the rostrum in the Superstock race at the TT in 2015, taking third place behind Ian Hutchinson and Michael Dunlop. In what was a memorable year for Johnston, he also claimed a Superstock victory at the North West 200 and repeated the feat at the Ulster Grand Prix.

“It was quite funny being on a Superstock podium alongside ‘Hutchy’ and Michael, but I want to give it a real good go on the big bikes this year especially as things were going well last year before I hit trouble,” he said.

“I was able to lap at 130mph from a standing start and whilst there’s a couple of miles-per-hour to be found for it to happen, I’d love to be on a big bike podium again.

“That’s not going to be easy when you see the likes of Michael finishing off the podium in a Senior race, like he did last year. That shows you how difficult it is to finish on a Superbike podium but the more mileage we do, the better chance we’ll have.”

Johnston will again line up as one of the favourites in the Supersport class on a Yamaha YZF-R6 and is hoping for further improvement with the Aprilia RS660 he rode in the Supertwin category last year, claiming second place behind Peter Hickman at the TT.

“We finished second in last year’s race but didn’t really deserve the podium, so we’ve been developing the bike over the winter to get some more power out of it,” said Johnston, who celebrated his maiden TT victory in the Supersport class in 2019.

“I want to be competitive and be genuinely ‘in’ the race this time around so as to bridge the gap to the frontrunners.

“I’m not sure if the Patons that Peter [Hickman] and Michael rode last year will be in the race, but you’ve got to do 120mph to win the race no matter what you’re riding, so that’ll be the aim.”

Johnston is set to compete in the British Supersport Championship once again this year and may also take in a few early rounds of the Superstock 1000 series on the Fireblade.