Burrows boys set for a steep learning curve in 2024

Father and son, John and Jack Burrows are under no illusions about the tough task that awaits them in 2024.

Thirteen-year-old Jack is making the step up from the Irish Minibike Championship and Ulster Superbike Championship to the Bennett’s British Superbike Championship paddock, where he will be part of the ultra-competitive British Talent Cup series.

This will be the talented Cookstown High School pupil’s first taste of racing on purpose-built tracks, in fields of around thirty competitors, in front of massive crowds in the tens of thousands, and for dad, John, he is set to get his eyes opened too.

Having run a hugely successful road racing team for over 20 years, the Dungannon man, who was a keen racer before that, has never actually experienced the British Superbike Championship from a competitor’s or team manager’s point of view, so while he admits Jack, who is under no pressure during his debut campaign, is facing a steep learning curve on track, he realises he is set for an equally demanding lesson off it.

“It’s massively different from Kirkistown and Bishopscourt and believe it or believe it not, the team has never done a race at British Championship level,” John explained.

“It’s always been a road race team – North West, TT’s, Macau, Kirkistown, Bishopscourt, Scarborough, Southern 100 – but we’ve never actually done a race in the British Championship so it will be a learning curve for me as much as it will be for Jack.

“All we can do as much homework and as much training with Jack as we can and hopefully by the end of the year he can maybe get himself into the position to score a few points.

“I’m very realistic about that, but the problem is every weekend is a new track, so even if you leave, say Snetterton, and you feel like you’ve made progress and you went well in the last race, you then go to, for example Brands, which is another new circuit, so you start from the bottom of the pile again.

“Everyone had to do it, now we have to do it and hopefully the media and social media don’t create negative pressure because he’s still a kid and there’s no advantage in the class apart from experience, which is the big thing.

“When I was racing the roads, my sponsor told me it’s a three year plan – you go and learn them for two years and then you race the third year – and it’s very true.”

And John, who is in charge of Burrows Engineering by RK Racing, also has to factor in the logistics of getting to the English short circuits and on many occasions back to a road race venue with little time to spare, while also bedding in his new rider for 2024, Dom Herbertson, who comes with the experience the team needed on this occasion.

“My riders in the past, I’ve probably taken them on when they were learning their trade in our team, but this time I just thought, look, I’d like to start off the TT where were left it last year,” John added.

“Mike [Browne] did a 129 [mph average lap], Dom did 130, so they are both similarly paced, which means we’re going back with a rider who can be knocking in and around the top 10 or better.”

While Herbertson should fit seamlessly into the road racing side of things in 2024, Jack will be able to receive the guidance needed in order to grow and improve as the British Talent Cup, which sees competitors race on identical Moto3 Honda machines – progresses throughout the season.

And while the teenager and his dad both have a lot to learn, it’s not the first time they have faced a big change in their racing careers.

John, obviously, went from racer to team principal, while Jack has switched from four wheels to two, excelling on both, so he should find the move from the Northern Irish tracks to those in Britain a challenge but certainly not an insurmountable one.

Burrows junior spent several years racing karts, winning a host of titles in various categories along the way, but two wheels was always a draw and in 2019 they decided to make the switch and John feels his son’s karting experience allowed him to make the move seem fairly straightforward. Success came almost immediately.

“He did karting until around 2019 and pretty much won everything he could,” John explained. ”He won a fair bit of stuff – Irish Championships and did some British Championship rounds.

“Karting was a serious way of introducing you to tracks because in karting you really have to use all of the track to get the most out of your kart. And obviously from a race craft point of view.

“Because of Covid, his first race ended up being a British Championship round and he was third in the very first race he did on the very first weekend of racing he did and he went on to do three full seasons in Minibikes and two on Moto3.

“His first Championship on the minibikes he ended up losing the title by one point, so he was second, but the following year he won the MiniGP 140 Championship and the Neil Robinson Memorial title and last year he won the 140 senior minibike championship.”

Having also won the Ulster Superbike Championship Moto3 class in 2023, Jack will have plenty of experience on the small Honda machinery which are used in the British Talent Cup, but John isn’t getting carried away.

“People tend to forget the age, and what he and Lewis Mullen [also 13, from Newmills, who races in the Spanish Moto4 Championship] are doing is phenomenal,” he said.

“But we’re very realistic because the challenge is high. The results are going to be a lot less, there are going to be fewer trophies. We’ve had a great time this year, but it’s a step we have to take because anyone who has been successful in England has to undergo a learning curve too.”

And Jack has his feet firmly on the ground ahead of the British Talent Cup opener in Navarra, Spain in April. Having undertaken some pre-season testing in Spain during the winter, he has had the opportunity to get an idea of what lies ahead.

But he knows patience will be key and that time will allow him to fulfil his undoubted potential.

“I’m really looking forward to the British Talent Cup because we’ve done as much as we can at home, winning the championship this year and winning the Sunflower, so I think it’s the right time to make the step up,” he said.

“Obviously, it’s going to be a big learning curve, not only the other riders and how they ride, but the tracks. It’s going to be a great experience because I’ve been watching British Superbikes since I was maybe five or six, these tracks are legend tracks so it will be nice to get to ride them.

“But it’s a two to three year thing. This year is about learning, next year will be about building and year three we can go for it but every year, every race and every session you try your best, so we’ll see what comes along.

“From coming from home and winning a lot, I know I’m going over there to hopefully get into the top 20, and with everyone is even, everyone is fast, it will be a lot different and it’s going to be quite difficult.”