WorldSSP: Mackenzie and Norrodin join MIE Honda

Tarran Mackenzie and Adam Norrodin have signed to race in World Supersport for the 2023 season. The duo will be riding Honda CBR600RRs with a new merging between MIE Honda and MS Racing.

Previous British Superbike champion, Tarran Mackenzie and Asian Superbike rider Adam Norrodin will be joining MIE Honda. The two riders will be changing manufacturers and will be changing to the smaller capacity Supersport machines.

The MIE Honda team and MS Racing will be merging for the campaign, both teams have experience within the paddock. The MIE Honda team currently races in WorldSBK, and MS Racing has previously won in the class in 2021.

The 2023 World Supersport season will have an added manufacturer as Honda returns to the grid. The Japanese manufacturer has been one of the most successful factories winning 10 titles, 104 race wins, 283 podiums, and 98 pole positions. They will be using the Honda CBR600RR, which last raced in the class in 2020 with the Dynavolt Honda team.

British rider Tarran Mackenzie is no stranger to the paddock, previously wildcarding at Donington Park in 2022. In his debut Mackenzie finished 14^th, he has also previously won the 2016 British Supersport championship.

After winning the Supersport championship, Mackenzie stepped up to the Superbike class where he would spend 6 seasons in the class. He would experience great success taking 16 wins and 43 podiums, before taking the title in 2021. He will not be the only British rider moving to the paddock next year, with Bradley Ray signing in the Superbike class.

Mackenzie said: “I’m really excited to join the MIE MS Racing Honda Team! It has been a big goal of mine to return to World Championship level and I think that competing in World Supersport is the perfect way to learn and move forward. I just want to say a big thank you to Midori and the whole team for giving me this opportunity. I can’t wait to begin!”

Alongside him for the season will be Malaysian rider Adam Norrodin who has previously competed in Grand Prix. He spent three seasons in Moto 3 finishing a best of 17^th in the standings and made some wildcard appearances in Moto 2. For 2022 he would compete in the Asian Superbike championship, taking two podiums at Sepang.

Norrodin said: “It’s an honour and a privilege to be able to join the MIE MS Racing Honda Team and I would like to thank Midori Moriwaki very much for giving me the opportunity to race on the world stage.

“I fully intend to give it my all, as this is a great opportunity for my future. I can’t wait to join the team, to take part in our first tests and, of course, to start racing when the season kicks   off in February.”

Midori Moriwaki, Team Principal and owner of MIE said: “Just do it. This has been a motto of mine ever since I started my racing activities and this is why I’m very happy and proud to announce that MIE Racing will debut in WorldSSP in 2023 with two riders of the calibre of Tarran Mackenzie and Adam Norrodin, and with the Honda family of course, competing with CBR600RR machines.

“Forming a partnership with the MS Racing Team means that we can start racing already next season. I’m sure that our combined strength and expertise will be instrumental in what will be an ongoing project, which will include an initial phase of development work that only the challenges posed by high-level racing can help with. We warmly welcome Tarran and Adam to the MIE and Honda family and we look forward to getting started!”

Felix Garrido, Team Owner at MS Racing added: “We at MS Racing are super happy to be involved in this project together with Midori and Honda and want to thank them very much for choosing us.

“We are aware of the challenges involved when starting a project of this magnitude, but we are willing to give it everything and more in order for the project to be successful.  We are eager to start testing with the CBR600RR and the riders.”

Image from worldsbk.com