Brogan to race celebration Blade at Brands Hatch

Newly-crowned Metzeler National Superstock 1000 champion Steve Brogan will be making his race debut on the limited-edition colour CBR1000RR Fireblade which celebrates his 2008 series win.

Steve will be running the 'winning yellow' Fireblade from tomorrow's first session at Brands Hatch. 100 of the yellow machines will be sold by Honda UK to celebrate Steve and Honda's win in the near-to-stock series which truly shows the performance of the shop-floor machines. Each one will bear Steve's signature.

Sadly, Steve will not be running in the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport championship, as the two broken bones in his right foot, sustained in a crash at Croft, means he is unable to ride in both classes: his place aboard the HM Plant Honda CBR600RR will be taken by talented Australian Joshua Brookes. Brookes is a World Supersport regular, and currently sits in third place in the table on his HANNspree Stiggy Honda CBR600RR.

Steve Brogan - HM Plant Honda

British Superstock - Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade

"I'm disappointed again not to be doing the Supersport 600 race, but the foot just won't be strong enough to do both races. Toby Branfoot - BSB's medical delegate - told me that the bones broken at Croft will only be knitting now, at Brands, so with the importance being me displaying the new colours for the title-winning Superstock Fireblade, the decision has been made. The advantage for me during recuperation is that there's less track time with Superstock so the foot is under less stress. It's important for Honda for me to be out there in Superstock with the 'winning yellow' colour scheme, so I'm looking forward to the weekend. We won last year on the 2007 Fireblade, so with the new bike I'm looking for more of the same and to get pole position and the fastest lap."

Havier Beltran - HM Plant Honda team manager

"Steve debuting the new paint scheme in Superstock is important to Honda, so that's priority over him riding in Supersport, where the title is already decided. We wanted to put a rider of Josh's calibre on for the final round as we wanted some feedback from a seasoned World Supersport campaigner. Billy did a good job, but it was always our plan to put someone on the bike at Silverstone who wouldn't affect the championship points too much. With Josh we feel we have a rider who is more than capable of putting it on the podium."