GRYD Racing will enter the British Superbike Championship next season with Glenn Irwin and Storm Stacey riding BMWs.
The team, co-owned by Michael Laverty and David Eltherington, joined forces with TAS Racing this year with the long-term plan of taking over from Phillip Neill at the end of 2026.
GYRD Racing are now pushing ahead with their 2027 plans and have signed two of BSB’s biggest names in Irwin and Stacey.
Irwin departs Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions Racing Ducati after a rough year due to injuries and technical problems with his Ducati V4 R. The Northern Irishman last rode a BMW back in 2019 with the TAS Racing team.
“What an exciting time for the entire British Superbike Championship as we move into probably the biggest regulation change that I have ever experienced,” Irwin said. “To step into this new era along with a team full of experience headed up by Michael Laverty, who is someone who I have a huge amount of respect for, as a rider in his career and a person, is incredible.
“The GRYD Racing team has continued to grow in such a short space of time, giving opportunities to many young riders and that is commendable.
“Having Storm as a teammate? It is no secret that he is an affable character and probably quite like me, in many ways. I have been in situations in the past where you are the experienced rider in the team, like in Supersport, and as much as Storm has the capabilities to win races along with myself, I will be happy to pass my experience to him and likewise extract from him as well.
“The entire project is really exciting, we will push each other, work hard together and we have a lot of respect for each other.”
Stacey departs Michael Rutter’s Bathams AJN Racing squad after two seasons, one with the BMW M1000 RR and one with the Ducati V4 R .
“I am excited about next season,” Stacey said. “I love change and I thrive off change. The GRYD Racing team is a big team with big ambitions and commitment and I believe alpha Racing will also make this a really strong package. I have worked with the team already, and I have experience with the BMW, and I really love working with them as a manufacturer.
“To have Glenn as a teammate too is going to be really interesting. He is someone who I speak to and have asked advice from in the past, and I think we can definitely learn from each other – he can pick things up from me, and I can pick things up from him definitely, as he has more experience than me.
“I feel that with the changes in the technical rules next year everyone needs to hunker down and get on with the work as we don’t know what to expect in 2027 yet. I think that will make it really close, but we know how great the standard BMW M 1000 RR is, so I am excited to get back on it again.”
Irwin and Stacey will race Alpha Racing-prepared BMW M 1000 RRs next year as they look to secure a maiden BSB title for BMW .
“It’s great to be able to confirm our line-up for the 2027 BSB season for GRYD Racing and our new partnership with BMW Motorrad and technical support from alpha Racing,” Laverty said.
“To be able to get two exciting riders like Storm and Glenn onboard the bespoke alpha Racing built BMW, with their previous successes and potential for the future, is a nice mix of youth and experience together inside the garage.
“I think it’s a great line-up, a great technical pairing with alpha Racing behind us, who we won the Superstock championship together with Ilya Mikhalchik. We’ve grown our Superstock operation…