New British Superbike Champion Tarran Mackenzie has confirmed he will make his WorldSBK debut in 2022 with a handful of wild-card outings after his anticipated move onto the world stage fell through.
The Scot - son of triple BSB champion Niall Mackenzie - swept to the 2021 BSB title on the McAMS Yamaha after overhauling team-mate Jason O’Halloran during the all-important Title Showdown.
It was a performance that duly earned him interest from the WorldSBK grid with Team Go Eleven - podium winners with Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Chaz Davies over the past two seasons - keen to get him on board as part of a plan to use Yamaha machinery.
However, when that failed to materialise, Go Eleven chose to stick with Ducati, prompting Mackenzie to walk away, with WorldSSP graduate Philip Oettl instead landing the seat.
As such, Mackenzie will defend his BSB crown in 2022, once more with McAMS Yamaha, but will attempt to put himself in the shop window with a handful of WorldSBK wild-card outings with assistance from the factory.
"I made it no secret this year and the team were pushing hard for me to go to WorldSBK for 2022," Mackenzie told sister publication Crash.net in an exclusive interview. "But it just wasn’t right for me to go, which is why I’m really happy to stay in the UK.
"But Yamaha has been really good with me and they’re going to supply a bike from their WorldSBK program to do three wildcards which is really, really cool.
"It will be a really nice experience for me. There’s nothing set in stone as in if you do x, y and z then you’re going to go in 2023, but I feel like if I have a good performance in some of these races that I’m going to get to do - nine races, so nine opportunities then that will be great.”
Indeed, while Mackenzie is satisfied to be competing in BSB for another year, he says his ultimate target is to succeed on the world championship stage.
"But yeah, WorldSBK is still the target. I’m only 26; there are some who are younger who are racing there already, but there’s also older guys that race in Superbikes, so I feel there’s still time yet and I want to first come back and prove a point next season by winning the BSB title with number one plate.
"But I also want to push on and try to move the goal post out a little bit more in WorldSBK. My hope and aim is to be there in 2023."
