{"id":299592,"date":"2025-11-21T16:12:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T16:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/299592\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T16:12:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T16:12:37","slug":"mike-browne-confirms-plans-for-new-2026-isle-of-man-tt-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/299592\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Browne confirms plans for new 2026 Isle of Man TT class"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Mike Browne has confirmed his plans for the 2026 Isle of Man TT Sportbike races, with the Irishman set to ride a Paton for Melbray Racing.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The Sportbike class is effectively a renaming of the Supertwin class that existed until 2025, both at the TT and at other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/road-racing\" data-entity-type=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">road racing<\/a> events like the North West 200.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It&#8217;s aimed at the same kind of motorcycles in terms of performance, but the renaming highlights a change to allow non-twin-cylinder bikes such as the three-cylinder Triumph Daytona 660, for example.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In this way, the Sportbike class aligns itself more with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/bsb\" data-entity-type=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BSB<\/a> Sportbike category that debuted in 2024, but it matters little to Browne\u2019s plans, as he will ride Paton S1-R in 2026.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Linking up with the Melbray Racing team \u2013 which was on the podium with Dominic Herbertson in 2025 and has partnered with Laycock Racing to prepare the bikes in 2026 \u2013 Browne is aiming to be further towards the front than he managed in the Supertwin races of 2025, when a fifth in Race 2 was his best result aboard the KMR Kawasaki.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to riding the Paton \u2013 the bike and I have unfinished business,\u201d Browne said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI want to be right at the sharp end and riding for the Melbray \/ Laycock racing team made it an easy \u2018yes\u2019 for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Melbray Racing Team Owner, Simon Warren added: \u201cOur little team starts its next adventure, and I honestly don\u2019t know what I\u2019m more excited about \u2013 Mike [Browne] riding our bike [Laycock Racing] taking care of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cMyself and my family are passionate TT fans first and foremost, and after Dom Herbertson\u2019s brilliant third place [in] this year\u2019s Supertwin TT, and Glen English\u2019s unbelievable second in the 2024 Classic Junior, this feels like the next step for us.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cHaving Mike onboard is a dream come true. He\u2019s such an outstanding rider and perfectly suited to the Paton.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Browne has confirmed his plans for the 2026 Isle of Man TT Sportbike races, with the Irishman&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,28425,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-299592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-road-racing","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}