Stuart Easton has signed to ride for Tommy Hill’s new Yamaha team and will partner former MotoGP rider John Hopkins in the team for next year’s MCE British Superbike squad.

The Hawick rider had been left without a seat after being dropped by Paul Bird and replaced by young Irishman Glenn Irwin so when the call from Hill came in to ride in the ePayMe Yamaha outfit, Easton grabbed it with both hands.

“There were obviously a lot of rumours that Tommy was going to start his own team up with Yamahas and I was really interested. Tommy returned the interest but until he had budget in place, nothing could be done. When that was sorted out, it progressed quickly, which was nice and now here we are alongside John Hopkins, who is a really good team-mate to have,” said Easton, speaking to Bikesport News.

“He has a lot of experience, he is going to be fast and I am sure he will bring a lot to the table when it comes to development. Everything now is looking very positive. The situation with Paul was he assured me for a long time that I had a job and then, at the 11th hour, it appeared that I didn’t. So when the opportunity came up with Tommy and the Yamaha, it was grabbed with both hands.

“The bike has proved, in its first year, to be a really good package. Although as awesome as it has been, I think Josh Brookes would have won this year riding anything, he has moved to another level in terms of riding, he was pretty special. So the bike is good but it’s not going to ride itself. As much as Josh has done a good job, he had to have a good bike to allow him to do that, so it’s looking positive.”