2025 Isle of Man TT riders and teams

01st November 2024

James Charman

The 2024 motorsport season may be wrapping up its on-track action, but behind the scenes negotiations and various meetings are well under way as riders look to secure their plans for 2025 (and possibly beyond).

For the Isle of Man TT, that can mean sitting down and making deals with multiple teams and sponsors. Unlike most championships, rather than competing in one category for one team, a TT rider could, in theory, sign deals with three or four different teams to compete across the fortnight. Who will be riding where in 2025...?

Joe Yeardsley confirms 2025 Road Racing programme

Updated: Friday, 1^st November. Following his Isle of Man TT debut in 2024, Joe Yeardsley will contest a full season for Scott Racing in the Supertwin category.

The move will see Yeardsley compete at the North West 200 for the first time, fresh of an eighth-place finish in the opening Supertwin race at the 2024 TT races. His continued rise in road racing follows a strong 2023 where he achieved podium results at both the Manx Grand Prix and Pre-TT Classic Road Races, as well as at the Cain Road Race in Mexico.

Yeardsley competed aboard a Paton in 2024 with Team ILR, but will switch to Aprilia machinery with Scott Racing in a deal that will also involve a full season of Irish national road races.

“Very happy to announce I’ll be riding for Scott Racing Motorcycles Ltd onboard their Aprilia Supertwin in 2025,” Yeardsley announced via social media. “Really excited to compete on the Irish roads calendar and the North West 200 for the first time, alongside the Isle of Man TT Races and Southern 100 road races. Big thanks to Trevor and the team for the opportunity and fingers crossed we can make some more progress next year.”

The announcement comes just three days after Michael Dunlop dubbed the national road racing scene as “finished,” with only the Cookstown 100, Armoy Road Races and Tandragee 100 scheduled for 2025. The latter is returning for the first time since 2022, while no road racing in the Republic of Ireland has been held since 2022 due to a sharp increase in insurance premiums since Covid.

Which classes are racing in the 2025 Isle of Man TT?

The 2025 Isle of Man TT will follow a similar format to the 2024 edition, with ten races spread across the first week in June. Four races will take place for 1,000cc machines, two for Superstock bikes and two for fully-fledged Superbikes. The latter includes the blue riband, event-closing Senior TT.

Smaller displacement motorcycles will compete for Supersport TT honours, with these closely resembling the road-going sportbikes you can expect to pass you on a dual carriageway. What used to be colloquially known as the ‘600’ class has seen changes to the regulations in recent years with most bikes now somewhere in the region of 600 and 750cc.

The final two-wheeled races will be contested by two-cylinder Supertwins, with engine sizes no greater than 700cc, while the ever-popular Sidecar TTs will complete the ten-race programme.

Who will be riding in the 2025 Isle of Man TT?

The first two riders to be officially confirmed for the 2025 TT races were Dominic Herbertson and James Hillier, with the former joining the WTF Racing squad that Hillier led in 2024. The pair will contest the Supersport, Superstock, Superbike and Senior TTs aboard Honda machinery.

Herbertson’s move to WTF Racing follows his strongest year at the TT to date, with the 33-year-old scoring his first ever TT podium finish in the first Supertwin race, having also set his fastest ever time around the 37.73-mile Snaefell Mountain Course in the Superstock class. The Durham-based rider, who will contest his 50^th TT next year, has tasted victory around the Isle of Man before, having won the 2018 Junior Classic TT on a 1972 Honda CB350.

James Hillier, meanwhile, returns to the WTF squad having enjoyed five top six finishes in 2024, including bookending his race week with a pair of fourths in the opening Supersport race and the Senior TT.

Filling the gap left by the departing Herbertson, Manxman Conor Cummins will move across to Burrows Engineering by RK Racing for the 2025 season. Cummins withdrew halfway through race week in 2024, with many speculating that he was going to be retiring with immediate effect. The 38-year-old has proven those rumours to be false, as he will ride a BMW M1000RR in the Superbike, Superstock and Senior TT races. Cummins will also race in the Supersport category on a yet to be confirmed machine.

The move to BMW signals the end of an era for Cummins, who has been mostly associated with Honda in his TT career. Having ridden for the works Honda team, Cummins has recently become known as one of the most constant fixtures within the Padgetts garage. He is currently the sixth fastest rider to ever lap around the TT course, and has 12 podium finishes to his name in 73 starts.

“I’ve obviously spent a lot of time on Honda machinery so the BMW will be a new challenge, but I’ve seen at close quarters just how strong a package it is,” said Cummins. “The machinery is going to be of the best quality and it’s a complete reset for me and a new chapter in my career.

“There’s no pressure from the team and John [Burrows, team owner] just wants me to enjoy riding his bike, but we both have goals we want to achieve as well. The results won’t be given to me, and we’ll need to work hard but getting back on the TT podium is where I want to be. The programme is all set, and I know where I’ll be riding and when so I’m really excited about our 2025 prospects.”