Neve has landed a spot with Bathams

Neve, aged 28, made his debut at the Isle of Man, competing in the 2015 Manx Grand Prix before graduating to the TT in 2016.

Since then, and despite missing 2019 TT through injury, and the next two through lockdown, Neve finished last year's senior event as a privateer in a respectable 11th position with a personal best lap of 127.5mph. He then was denied a chance of victory in the Classic Superbike race in August.

The Batham's team is now focussing mainly on road racing, although they will take part in select British Championship rounds.

They will also be expanding into the Supertwin and Supersport classes with Rutter and Neve competing on the Yamaha R7, and Neve on a Triumph Daytona 675R.

Neve will ride the Honda Fireblade in both Superbike and Superstock specifications, and whilst Rutter is still considering his machine choice, there will be a total of seven race bikes in black and gold this season. A spokesman said they were keen to expand by recruiting a young rider who they felt has a great deal of potential.

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 team mate in Michael is massive for me, and I can’t wait to start.”

Rutter said: “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”.