Mackenzie lines up for 2023 MIE Honda launch

MIE Honda officially unveiled its 2023 line up on Wednesday with former British Champion Tarran Mackenzie spearheading the Supersport challenge.

While Hafizh Syahrin and Eric Granado will compete for the Japanese outfit aboard the CBR1000RR-R Fireblade Superbike, Mackenzie and Adam Norrodin will tackle the Honda CBR600RR as part of the all-new Petronas MIE MS Racing team in the FIM World Supersport Championship for the coming season.

“It is a real source of pride and satisfaction for the MIE Racing Honda Team to be able to announce a multi-year partnership with Petronas and hope to expand our presence in the production-derived championship with our Supersport team together,” Midori Moriwaki, Owner of MIE Racing confirmed of the new partnership, which also plans to focus on the development of an ‘academy program’ through WorldSBK and WorldSSP as a catalyst for a up-and-coming Malaysian talent.

“I’ve had a great off-season and am looking forward to getting started,” Mackenzie said on the launch. “There’s a lot of history behind Midori and the Moriwaki family. She is passionate about racing and has put in a lot of effort to take another step up again this year. And we have Petronas on board too, a massive name in motorsport, which is great.

“As for me, the goal was always to return to world championship level and Midori and her team are now giving me that opportunity. It’s not going to be easy because there’s a lot of fast guys there, but I think starting in WorldSSP is a good move for me.

“I’ve been on the Superbike in BSB for five seasons now, but I think it’ll be good for me to ride the smaller and nimbler Supersport bike. I think this new Honda has great potential – we just need to take things one step at a time. On