Franco Bourne will remain on the British Superbike Championship grid for the final two rounds of the 2023 season at Donington Park and Brands Hatch to coincide with Marvel HCL Motorsport’s graduation to the premier class.

The youngster has become a familiar figure in the BSB field recently after being given the nod to substitute for the injured Andrew Irwin on the factory Honda Racing Fireblade.

With Irwin returning to action after a six-round lay-off this weekend, Bourne returns to the Marvel HCL team he began the season with in the National SSTK class, but does so at BSB level following the team’s decision to graduate by utilising BSB’s Pathway regulations.

“Firstly I would like to thank Harv and everyone at Honda Racing UK for giving me the opportunity to cover for Andrew Irwin while he recovered from his injury, those opportunities don’t come around very often to ride for a Factory team and I think we started to show some of the potential on the Superbike. 

“Now Andrew is recovered and back on the bike, I am looking forward to continuing my Superbike experience for the last two rounds with Marvel HCL Motorsport, on a Pathway spec Superbike to see what we can do against the established teams on their full blown Superbikes. 

“We were very successful together on the Superstock bike at the beginning of the season, with three podiums from the first four rounds so I am looking forward to showing what we can do in Superbikes too.”

Bourne cracked the points on five occasions during his 15-race stint with Honda Racing in BSB, peaking with a best result of 12th.