James Hillier

CSC Racing will have a new look line up for their 2019 Classic TT presented by Bennetts campaign, with regular team member James Hillier being joined by Ireland’s Michael Sweeney.

Hillier will contest the Bennetts Senior Classic TT Race on a 500cc Honda-4 with Sweeney joining him at the August event on a similar machine. The Southern Irishman has taken over the machines vacated by Dan Cooper and he will also line up on a 350cc Honda in the Locate.im Junior Classic TT Race, which will also be held over four laps.

34-year old Hillier, who took two more podiums at this year’s Isle of Man TT Races, is no stranger to the Classic TT having been a regular on board the CSC Racing Honda machines since the inaugural meeting in 2013.

The Hampshire rider took sixth in the 2013 Senior Race and although he was out of luck over the following three years, he was back on the leaderboard in 2017 when he took a solid eighth place on the team’s immaculate 4 cylinder Honda machine.

Last year saw him go one better with seventh and he has a personal best lap in the class at 105.940mph which will again see him among the seeded riders this August.

Sweeney will contest the Senior and Junior Races for the first time and will look to emulate the results achieved by Cooper as the Gloucestershire rider regularly challenged for the podium positions in his three years with the team.

County Dublin based Sweeney does have previous experience of the festival having previously contested the Dunlop Lightweight Classic TT Races. Riding for Laylaw Racing, the now 38-year old took eighth in 2016 and 12th in 2017 when on board a 250cc Yamaha and, as one of the best TT Privateers in recent years, he should be well to the fore on team owner Steve Caffyn’s machines.

The team will also field a third rider with Weston-super-Mare’s Wayne Axon riding an XR69 1100cc Suzuki in the four-lap RST Superbike Race.