Road racer James McBride from Kettering is preparing for his U.S.A Daytona debut riding as a satellite team to the Michael Jordan Suzuki race effort on the 6th-8th March.

He will be competing in the opening round of the AMA Championship which is held at the end of the famous Daytona Bike Week in Florida . McBride has secured an entry into the event with some assistance from AMA ace Geoff May who has also supplied him with his 2007 Superstock machine. McBride will compete in the Superstock race on Thursday 6th March and the Superbike race on Saturday 8th March.

For this one off event McBride has pulled in a local sponsor and will run under the team name of Standard Engineering Suzuki, however his season long title sponsor will be Pazzo Racing with Speedycom. Keeping his faith with local businesses he will also run in Spidi leathers the importers of which are also based in his home town of Kettering .

With all his sponsors lined up for the year ahead McBride has also managed to get himself a regular spot in RiDe magazine which is produced in Peterborough. The local magazine has decided to feature McBride all season long as their racer - Carpenter by day and International Road Racer at the weekend!

“I’m over the moon with how everything is going for me at the moment,“ he said. “I’ve been working really hard behind the scenes this winter and so many good things have happened all at once. I have always been intrigued with Daytona and now thanks to Geoff and his team helping me out, racing it is becoming a reality.”

McBride headed across the pond on 1st March to get acclimatised and settle into his team. This is his first event of the year and he is hoping it will help him get up to speed for the very high speed North West 200 races in Ireland in May. “I can’t think of anywhere else going where there are very slow sections and within seconds…extremely high. This should blow out the winter cobwebs

“I’m not really sure what to expect but I know I want to get a solid result and use Daytona as a warm-up to my road racing season ahead,” explained McBride. “I can’t wait to get let loose on the 35-degree banking. Everyone has been telling me how you get a slingshot off the top of the bank and then get into a high speed slipstream before the finish line. Apparently the guys can reach up to 195mph – bring it on!”

James would like to take the opportunity at the start of the year to thank everyone who has come on board to support him in what is likely to be a fascinating year. Geoff May, Keith Malyon, Markus of Pazzo, Trevor Hall Ian Carson, Colin Hill and Emma "DangerScouse" Franklin.