Road Racing: Bathams signs Craig Neve

Craig Neve has signed for the Bathams Racing team for 2023 and will partner with Michael Rutter. 

Neve will race at this year’s North West 200 and Isle of Man TT and will also wildcard in selected British championship rounds. The team is still fully focused on road racing this season and will race in multiple classes.

For their 2023 campaign, Bathams Racing will expand into the Supertwin and Supersport classes. Neve and Rutter will ride the brand-new Yamaha R7 in the Supertwin class, and Neve will ride a Triumph 675R in Supersport. 

Neve will be onboard the Honda Fireblade in the Superbike and Superstock classes, while Rutter has yet to decide on his bike. Next year, there will be seven bikes in the iconic black and gold Bathams colour scheme.

28-year-old, Craig Neve made his debut at the Isle of Man in 2015, competing in the Manx Grand Prix. He would later move up to the TT in 2016 and would race there ever since. His Isle of Man TT highlight would come at the 2022 Senior TT with a respectable 11^th position and a 127.5mph lap.

Michael Rutter has had great success at the Isle of Man TT in the past, taking seven race wins. He has also won 14 times at the North West 200 and has been highly competitive on short circuits.

Neve said: “Obviously, I’m very happy to be joining Bathams Racing. They’re a big team that has a massive amount of experience in all forms of racing, which I can only benefit from. Having someone who has started 80 TT races over a 29-year TT career as my teammate is massive for me, and I can’t wait.”

Rutter added: “Obviously, I still love racing at the TT and Northwest 200, so there was never any chance of me not going this year. I also recognise that I’m at a great stage of my career to be able to bring on a young upcoming rider, so along with Bathams Ales we decided that now is a really good time to expand the team.

We’re all really looking forward to working with Craig and helping him along with his journey, plus it’ll be great to see a pair of black and gold bikes out there at the same time”.

Image from Bathams Racing