Preparations for the 2023 Bennetts British Superbike Championship are full steam ahead for the Lancashire-based McAMS Yamaha team as they look ahead to their seventh season in the class.
Having won more races than any other rider over the last three years, Jason O’Halloran returns with the 2021 champions for a fifth season in 2023 and is gunning to get his hands on the title that has agonisingly eluded him over the past two years.
The 22-time race winner’s corner will once again be headed up by experienced crew chief Barry Stanley, who re-joins the team for 2023 after a season away last year. Stanley was alongside O’Halloran for his strongest-ever BSB season in 2021, which saw the Aussie take a phenomenal 11 victories and 22 podiums.
On the other side of the garage, Tim Neave steps up from the National Superstock category to make his full-time British Superbike debut aboard the McAMS Yamaha R1. Neave put in his first laps on the BSB-spec machine in a shakedown test in Spain at the end of 2022.
The former flat-track champion’s corner will be headed up by Mike Norton, who steps up to the crew chief role from his existing position as the team’s suspension engineer. While 2023 will mark Norton’s first season as a crew chief, his pedigree speaks for itself: Before joining McAMS Yamaha in 2019, Norton worked as a suspension engineer in MotoGP from 2002 to 2017, including 12 years working under legendary crew chief Jeremy Burgess for nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi.
Chris Anderson will continue in his role running the technical side of the team, while the experienced Tim Seed and Kev Stephenson will remain in their roles looking after electronics and engine development respectively.
Testing gets underway for the team in March ahead of the opening round of the 2023 Bennetts British Superbike Championship, which takes place over Easter weekend in April.