Lee Johnston will sit out next summer’s TT.

The popular Northern Irishman revealed he will be missing both the North West 200 and TT next year on a vlog posted on his YouTube channel on Monday.

Johnston will instead focus on the British Supersport Championship with his new team Swan Sencat Triumph Racing.

The 35-year-old has been hampered by injury over the last couple of years, only returning to road racing at August’s Manx Grand Prix.

Prior to that the Halifax-based rider had been out of action since initially suffering serious injuries at the 2023 North West 200 and then sustaining further injury in a Spanish testing crash in late January.

Talking about the decision, Johnston said: ‘As of 2025, I am not going to be doing any road racing, so that’s no North West 200, no TT; this is not a big retirement speech - it’s just not possible to do that correctly next year.

‘I spoke to quite a few teams in the past four or five months, trying to get as much information as I possibly could - this team does not want to go road racing and that’s their decision and that’s their call, and I completely stand by that.

‘Some of the other teams I spoke to that did want to go road racing, they didn’t really have any road racing experience.

‘I’ve been in a good team for quite a few years so to take a step back or whatever would be pointless, and with me missing the roads for a few years, the biggest thing I thought I needed was a genuine top team who knew how to do everything, [so] there was no worry or extra risk added, so I thought it was better not to do the job if I couldn’t do it properly.’

Lee’s previous team Ashcourt Racing, withdrew from professional racing at the end of September.

Johnston will be running alongside Freddie Barnes onboard the Triumph 765 within the Quattro Group British Superport Championship. The support series of the British Superbike Championship gets underway at Oulton Park at the beginning of May.

Looking ahead to the new campaign, Johnston said: ‘I’m really looking forward to the 2025 season and the excitement of joining a new team and all the change that comes with this.

‘This season I also have the change of having a younger team mate in Freddie, which I haven’t had before.

‘So I’m also looking forward to helping Freddie along in his career as best I can sharing my experiences in my time racing.’

During his recent hiatus from racing, Johnston has been a popular addition to the Radio TT commentary team and fans will be hoping his short-circuit calendar allows for him to join the event’s punditry team again in June.