British Superbikes: MV Agusta's Chris Burns speaks to MCN

Chris Burns will race an STP MV Agusta in the British Superbike Championship next year.

MCN spoke to him about his new deal.

MCN: Chris you’re likely to be the only guy racing an MV Agusta in British Superbikes next year. How do you feel about that?

Chris Burns: It’s pretty exciting. We’ve got the same stuff as Carl Fogarty would have had if he’d run in 2008. We’ve still got a lot of development work to do ourselves and it’s all a bit of an unknown.

I don’t expect it to be easy but I’m really looking forward to it. BSB is a tough series – it’s world championship level racing.

MCN: You raced an MV in the National Superstock series last year. Did you think then it would make a good superbike?

Chris Burns: It was a great bike. When it was running we were up among the front runners.

The only problem we had was with the transmission – the clutches and gearboxes. But those are the parts you can change in BSB so I’m looking forward to riding the superbike.

MCN: It’s been ages since you had a proper signed-up deal going into a new race season. How do you feel about that?

Chris Burns: It makes a change to get sorted this early. In 2003 and 2004 I had the WCM in MotoGP then in 2005 I got some rides on the AIM Yamaha in supersport. I had a deal with them for 2006 at the start of the year but it turned out to be a bit of a shambles.

We were supposed to test pre-season and I was promised a ride at Daytona but we never saw the bikes until qualifying at the first round. I busted my foot at Donington.

When I came back the bike blew up at Snetterton and I was blamed. I’d had enough by then!

MCN: Did you ever question whether it was all worth it?

Chris Burns: Oh yeah. In 2006 I was so sick of it I was prepared to walk away (from the sport). Then in 2007 I got the offer to ride the STP MV Agusta.

I tested at Knockhill and was pleasantly surprised I could still ride – and still had the appetite to continue racing.

MCN: What are you thoughts on the forthcoming season with the new bike?

Chris Burns:  When Warwick Nowland began over-seeing things last year it improved a lot. This year he’s the team manager and there’s a whole new staff line-up so that’s positive.

The one thing I don’t want to do next year is jump in at the deep end. We’re talking about going testing.

I’m training like never before and if everything falls into place as it should do, I’m prepared to give it a go.