Taylor Mackenzie is building for his return with Tyco Suzuki in the Motorpoint British Supersport Championship this season and as he continues his final winter preparations the young Scot is aiming for podium finishes in 2014.

Mackenzie had a best result of fifth at Donington Park last season but is aiming high for his second consecutive campaign with Tyco Suzuki after spending time recently training in South Africa. We caught up with him for a pre-season update.

Over to Taylor:

"Although the mad rush of the race season has finished I've still had a busy few months. I spent a large part of December in South Africa with my friend and sponsor Jonny Towers from Moto Direct. It's difficult to train properly in the winter months in England, being south of the equator meant I was able to cycle, run and swim every single day which was really good fun. I also took part in a 150cc eight hour endurance race, which turned out to be one of the hardest and closest races of my life. Eight hours and two broken South Africans later, the bike limped home to fifth place, which considering we had one crash and took ten minutes out to fix a mechanical problem, it wasn't all that bad!

"As it happens the weather hasn't been all that bad since my return and I've still been able to do a lot of training outdoors. I went trials riding with the Lowes twins, the Haslams, Hutchy and James Whitham last week, which was really good fun. The biggest bonus being we all made it through the day in one piece, though sadly, the same can't be said for the bikes. I've also been busy getting as much sponsorship in as I can for the 2014 season. I've restarted my mysquares campaign where fans or companies wishing to see themselves on my race helmet for 2014 can buy 1.5cm squares for £100. All the info can be found at http://www.taylor-mackenzie.com.

"I'm counting down the days till I go testing now, I've got a big season ahead of me but I really can't wait to get going. I'm over the moon to be staying with the Tyco Suzuki team for a second year. I've got a great group of people around me and I can't see any reason why I can't be fighting for rostrum places this year, it certainly won't be for a lack of trying! See you at a race track soon!"

Taylor #77