TAS Racing boss explains team’s road racing withdrawal
TAS Racing won the Senior TT in 2024, but will step back from road racing next year.
After winning the largest prize in road racing, the Senior TT, TAS Racing will withdraw from road racing in 2025 focus on the short circuits.
The decision coincides with a move from BMW, with whom TAS first began its partnership almost 10 years ago in 2015, to Ducati and the Bologna brand’s Panigale V4 R Superbike, as well as its Panigale V2 Supersport machine.
“This is exciting for us,” said TAS Racing team principal Philip Neill when speaking at the recent Motorcycle Live show in Birmingham.
“You need to find new challenges I think after a certain amount of years, and this one came about through circumstance.
“But I can’t say how happy I am really. Ducati is an iconic brand; I’ve always admired them from a distance and can’t wait for the opportunity to see what we can do.”
The switch to Ducati means that TAS, which this year won the Senior TT (among numerous other road races) with Davey Todd, will not contest any road races in 2025.
Neill doesn’t rule out a return to the roads for the Northern Irish team, but said that the focus of the team’s attention now is on winning the BSB title — something Ducati has done on three occasions since the original V4 R hit the British Championship in 2019.
“What’s the saying, never say never,” Neill said of TAS’s road racing future.
“It's in our blood, we enjoy that side of things.
“But it is time for us right now to focus on British Superbikes. We want to win that championship.
“We’ve had lots of success in the other categories, in Superstock and Supersport, and have come very close in Superbike several times. But now we need to put our focus and effort in to try and win Superbike.”
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
