Todd is thrilled to benefit from Burrows’ significant

YOUNG English prospect Davey Todd is the sole representative for John Burrows’ Dungannon team at this week’s Vauxhall International North West 200.

Burrows’ senior rider, Derek Sheils, has other commitments this weekend with the Penz13. com team at Horice in the Czech Republic.

Sheils’ deal with Burrows this year is to ride his Suzuki Superbike only at the smaller Irish national events, and the big Dubliner will switch to the Penz BMW at the Isle of Man TT. New signing Todd is, meanwhile, embarking on his first full season of road racing after making his debut in 2017 at the Skerries 100, but the 22-year-old is tipped as a rider who could well have a big future ahead of him.

He has made a strong start to the season with a podium in the Supertwins class at the Cookstown 100 and a solid seventh place in the Open Superbike race at Tandragee.

The British Supermoto hotshot is making his debut at the North West 200 but Todd has been able to tap into former racer Burrows’ vast wealth of experience and he intends to put that knowledge to good use.

“John’s experience is so valuable to me and it was one of the reasons why I desperately wanted to ride for the Burrows Engineering team this year, because he is so experienced,” Todd said.

“He was a really quick rider in his day and he knows his stuff, so to have that experience on my side helps a lot. He knows a lot of people in the game and I couldn’t be with a better team this season.

“I had my first experience of riding for the team at the last round of the Irish nationals at Killalane towards the end of last year.

“They are a dream team for me so to have this opportunity is unbelievable.

“The whole team works amazingly well together and we had a decent start at Cookstown, although I hope we used up all of our bad luck at Tandragee,” added Todd, who was hampered by problems with his 600 Honda and Kawasaki Supertwin at the event plus a DNF in the feature race after a coming together with William Dunlop.

The North Yorkshire rider is a former frontrunner in the British Superstock 600 Championship