Paul Jordan will ride for the Burrows Engineering/RK Racing team at the Irish national road races in 2020.
Picture: Stephen Davison/Pacemaker Press.

Ulster Grand Prix winner Paul Jordan has put pen to paper on a deal with Northern Ireland’s Burrows Engineering/RK Racing team to compete at the Irish national road races in 2020.

The Magherafelt man has established himself as one of road racing’s brightest prospects over the past few seasons and although the former British Championship 125cc race winner only made his Isle of Man TT debut in 2017, Jordan finished an excellent fourth last year in the Lightweight race.

He later claimed his first international road racing success at the Ulster Grand Prix in the Supertwin class and in 2018, Jordan lapped the Dundrod course at 131.148mph, achieving a best result of fourth in the Superbike race.

The 28-year-old will concentrate solely on the Irish national meetings for John Burrows’ Co. Tyrone-based team this year, when he will ride a Suzuki GSX-R1000 Superbike and Yamaha YZF-R6.

Jordan joins rising talent Mike Browne in the line-up, who will compete at the North West 200 and Isle of Man TT in addition to the Irish national meetings on a Suzuki GSX-R1000 Superstock machine and Yamaha YZF-R6. Speaking of his new deal, Jordan said:

“It’s fantastic to be joining a team like Burrows Engineering/RK Racing because John has so much experience and I know this is a move that will really benefit me. It will be nice to work with Mike Browne as well because he’s been coming through the field strongly.

“Being in the team will ensure I get a lot of track time this year at the Irish nationals and that is only going to bring my riding on.

“You only have to look at the calibre of riders who have been with this team in the past, like Dan Kneen, Malachi Mitchell-Thomas, Davey Todd and of course Derek Sheils.”

Jordan has shouldered much of the workload when it comes to bike preparation at the Irish national races in the past, but he is now looking forward to focusing solely on riding the Burrows machines with the luxury of an experienced team in his corner.

“In the past, I’ve been going to the Irish national road races with just my 600 and we’ve been setting the bike up ourselves and doing all the work on it, so having a team behind me is really going to ease that burden and I’ll be able to basically turn up, throw my leg over the bikes and race,” he said.

“At present, we are aiming to do selected Irish national road races but wherever we race, I’ll be aiming to be challenging for wins on the 600 and Superbike. I’ve never raced a 1000cc Suzuki before and I only sat on one for the first time when we did the team photoshoot. The plan is to ride the bike for the first time at Kirkistown in a test at the end of March.”

Team owner Burrows admitted he had found it difficult to put together a suitable line-up for the 2020 season after parting company from Derek Sheils in an amicable split in January, although he is now more than satisfied with his two new signings.

“First and foremost, this has probably been the hardest year to date since I started running a team to actually put together a line-up,” said Burrows.

“It has been especially difficult because of the limited number of riders available but I have a duty to sponsors to have the most competitive team possible out on track. I feel with Paul Jordan coming in to spearhead the team alongside Mike Browne, we have a strong combination for national road racing.

“We are really looking forward to running Mike at the international meetings, although I am a bit disappointed that we don’t have Paul available for the internationals. Unfortunately, when he left RC Express Racing, Paul had finalised other commitments for the international races by the time myself and Derek Sheils parted company,” he added.

“I had to make a decision and we came to a deal with Paul to run him at the Irish nationals. We’re really pleased to have him on board and I’m excited about the season ahead because it is a completely new line-up for Irish road racing.”