Tarran Mackenzie and Jason O’Halloran will remain with the McAMS Yamaha team for the 2020 Bennetts British Superbike championship after agreeing one-year extensions to their current deals.
After a strong but challenging 2019, the Fleetwood-based squad is hoping to build on experience gained with both riders this season to launch a full-blown title attack in 2020 with the all-new Yamaha YZF-R1.
The deal sees young gun Tarran Mackenzie remain with the team for the third successive year. The 23-year-old has already proven his title fighting credentials this year, securing his place in the 2019 BSB Showdown this weekend at Oulton Park.
Mackenzie took four podiums with McAMS Yamaha in his rookie season last year and has already surpassed that in 2019 with three rounds to go, having taken five rostrum finishes this season including his debut BSB win at Silverstone.
After a dominant testing performance and sterling rides at Silverstone, Jason O’Halloran’s 2019 season hasn’t gone to plan with injuries ruling him out of contention for much of the year. All parties are confident there is more to come from the combination of the super-fast Aussie and the YZF-R1 and having missed out on the Showdown, he can now use the final three rounds to build for next season.
Preparations for the 2020 season are already underway with the new-for-2020 YZF-R1 expected to arrive at the Raceways Motorcycles workshop by the end of the month, allowing the build of the 2020 race bikes to begin earlier than normal. The team has already undertaken a number of performance tests on a pre-production model, finding impressive results throughout the power range.
Significant engine changes for the 2020 bike should enable the team to take another step forward, and retaining both riders was a key part to the development plan of the YZF-R1.