A new team has been set up by Michael Laverty’s MLav Racing organisation aimed at progressing British motorcycle racing talent up the Road to MotoGP ladder.
MLav Racing began last year, headed up by Laverty and competing in the British Talent Cup, European Talent Cup, and Moto3 World Championship. Its European Talent Cup effort, as part of the FIM JuniorGP series that’s essentially the final rung on the ladder for a rider before they go to the World Championship, will rebrand in 2024 under the ‘British Talent Team’ name.
The identity ‘British Talent Team’ is not entirely new. John McPhee raced for the British Talent Team in its one and only season of GP racing in the Moto3 class back in 2017, and it has been in what is now called JuniorGP since the following year. However, the British Talent Team’s existence in JuniorGP until now has been as part of the wider ‘Talent Team’ setup that takes in riders from the other Talent Cup series’ organised by Dorna, such as the Asia Talent Cup.
The new formation of the British Talent Team with MLav Racing will separate graduates from the British Talent Cup from those of other regional cups coming to the JuniorGP paddock, and in doing so should hopefully create more spaces for British riders in what is a critical step on the route to Grand Prix racing, where Laverty has a team set up ready to take on those ready to move up to the World Championship.
As well as announcing the new British Talent Team, the rider line-up for both the European Talent Cup and JuniorGP teams were announced. In the ETC, 2022 British Talent Cup winner Johnny Garness will have a space ready for him in anticipation of his recovery from injuries sustained earlier in 2023, and alongside him will be Amanuel Brinton, who ran at the front of the BTC in 2023. In JuniorGP, 2023 BTC winner Evan Belford will partner Eddie O’Shea on Honda machinery.
Michael Laverty said: “It is a proud moment for us to become ’The British Talent Team’, the title encompasses our ethos. The ultimate ambition for our team is to promote talent from the UK and Ireland into the premier MotoGP class, we have now created a clear pathway, having four British Talent cup graduates with us on the next steps of the ladder in both the European Talent Cup and JuniorGP for 2024.
“The plan is to develop our riders to graduate into our Moto3 Grand Prix team in the future; competing against the best young riders in the world is the best preparation.
“I feel we are laying the correct foundations for the future of British racing at the very top level of the sport."
Ana Ezpeleta, Talent Promotion Director at Dorna Sports, added: “We’re really happy to announce this new collaboration with MLav Racing. We’ve worked together in a few different ways for a while, but to formalise and finally announce this whole new project makes us really proud. The British Isles is an important part of both motorcycle racing’s past and future, and we’re really happy to invest in that future by creating these new opportunities on the Road to MotoGP.”
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