Tim Neave will join the growing number of rookies in the 2023 Bennetts British Superbike Championship after signing a deal to progress into the premier class with McAMS Yamaha.
The former flat-track ace impressed in 2022 with a stunning start to the National Superstock Championship aboard the team’s stock R1 in Edwards 1902 colours, taking Yamaha’s first victory in the 1000cc Superstock class in over a decade. Three wins at the beginning of the year saw Neave amass a healthy championship lead, until a freak accident while testing at Knockhill saw him suffer a badly broken pelvis which would rule him out of the title fight. Despite the huge injury, he still managed to return to the podium before the year was out with a third place at Snetterton.
Neave made his Superbike debut with a one-off appearance with the Buildbase Suzuki squad at Cadwell Park in 2021, where he showed promise by scoring points in all three races with no prior track time, but 2023 will mark the Lincolnshire rider’s first full-time campaign in the Superbike class as he joins the official Yamaha Motor UK outfit.
The 27-year-old will get his first taste of the McAMS Yamaha R1 Superbike in a private test in Spain later this month.
The news marks the first time the Raceways Motorcycles-run McAMS Yamaha team have fielded a new rider line-up since 2019. Newbie Neave lines-up alongside the experienced Jason O’Halloran, who heads into his fifth season with McAMS Yamaha having won more races than any other rider in the last three years.