Craig Neve will team up with Michael Rutter at Bathams Racing for this year’s Isle of Man TT and Northwest 200.

The team has announced that the 28-year-old will ride for them at the two events as well as select British Championship rounds.

Neve made his Mountain Course debut at the 2015 Manx Grand Prix before graduating to the TT one year later.

Neve finished the 2022 Senior TT 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 the following August.

In a statement released on Thursday, Bathams said: ‘By focusing mainly on road racing once again for 2023, the team were keen to expand by recruiting a young rider who we feel has a great deal of potential.

‘Bathams Racing believe that Neve is a rising star of the sport and are very excited about his potential alongside the highly-experienced Rutter.

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

‘With Neve’s weapons of choice being the Honda Fireblade in both Superbike and Superstock spec, while Rutter is still considering his machine choice, there will be a total of seven race bikes in black and gold this season.’

Speaking about the move, Neve commented: ‘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 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.’