{"id":363731,"date":"2026-04-04T17:19:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T17:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/363731\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T17:19:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T17:19:19","slug":"prominent-isle-of-man-tt-team-to-expand-change-bikes-for-2026-road-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/363731\/","title":{"rendered":"Prominent Isle of Man TT team to expand, change bikes for 2026 road races"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Russell Racing may be continuing with Mike Browne for the 2026 Isle of Man TT road races, but the well known road racing team will introduce multiple other changes.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Browne will be back with Russell Racing for a third straight year in 2026, but this year he will ride not only the Supersport class for the squad but also the 1,000cc classes at the Isle of Man TT <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/road-racing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">road races<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Browne rode for the Russell Racing team in each of the last two years, despite riding for the Triumph-affiliated KTS team in the Superbike and Superstock classes last year aboard its BMW M1000 RR, replacing Jamie Coward at the time.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This year, though, Browne will ride for the Russell Racing team in both 1,000cc classes as well as the Supersport class, as the team expands into the \u2018big bike\u2019 categories with Honda machinery.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In the Supersport class there are changes, too, as the Yamaha R9 replaces the R6 that Russell Racing had become so adept at tuning.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI\u2019m really pleased to be continuing with Russell Racing,\u201d said Browne.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWe\u2019ve built a great relationship over the last couple of years, and the programme for 2026 is a big step.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThe R9 is an exciting prospect, and having competitive machinery across all classes gives us a solid platform to push for results.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Russell Racing team owner Alister Russell added: \u201cThe TT is the focal point for us, and this year\u2019s programme reflects how seriously we\u2019re taking it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cMike [Browne] has the experience and the pace to deliver across every class, and we\u2019re confident the package we\u2019ve put together will allow us to keep moving forward.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Browne was already confirmed to be racing the newly renamed Sportbike class (formerly Supertwin) at this year\u2019s TT aboard a Paton.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The 2026 Isle of Man TT is due to start on 25 May and run through to 6 June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russell Racing may be continuing with Mike Browne for the 2026 Isle of Man TT road races, but&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,101204,213],"class_list":["post-363731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-road-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}