“Battered” Isle of Man TT rider set for 2025 return after “strange tank slapper”

Davo Johnson has confirmed his plan to return at the 2025 Isle of Man TT with “unfinished business”.

The Australian rider will race with Lee Hardy Racing next year.

Johnson will compete at the TT and the North West 200 on the team’s Kawasaki machinery.

The team confirmed: “Back in 2025 as the Official Kawasaki road racing team with Australian sensation Davo Johnson, the team is looking forward to competing at the Northwest 200 and Isle of Man TT.

“It is fantastic to have the support of Kawasaki again and having a manufacturer directly supporting the team is a great feeling.

“We have unfinished business on the roads, it was unfortunate to end the way it did this year at the TT when Davo was showing amazing potential throughout practice week.

“Davo is very excited to sign a new deal with the team and continue with Kawasaki aboard the ZX10-RR.”

Johnson crashed scarily this year on the Mountain Course during the Superbike TT.

He explained at the time: “Everything was going well. Was happy with the pace and feel with the bike and was comfortably running in the 131mph laps which is definitely the best start to the TT race week ever for me.

"I had a brake fade issue just before the final lap so I backed the pace off to bring her home in a comfortable 8th.

"Unfortunately I had a very strange tank slapper at K Tree which I’ve never experienced before and I couldn’t recover it.

"I managed to roll off the side of the bike and go straight down the middle of the road.

"I’m battered and bruised and luckily only fractured my collarbone.”