Tom Ward from Canterbury will be making the step-up when the season gets underway in the Pirelli Superstock 600 series.

The youngster will be moving up from the Triumph Triple Challenge as he looks to progress through the Bike racing series.

Speaking about the reason for moving into the Superstock’s he said: “Definitely, I have been in the Triumph Triple challenge throughout 2011,2012 and the three wildcard rides in 2013, where I feel I have gained a lot of knowledge from the 675 and really got to know where my limits are. The Superstock 600 is an extremely competitive class I think it will be my proving ground. I feel very confident and my head is in the right place.”

Tom will be racing for Go Racing Development in 2014 and he explains how the move to the new team came about.

He added: “I have known Mark Sadler (Team Manager) for a few years now as my friend Jordan Simpkin rode for him throughout 2011, 2012 and 2013 and have got to know him well. He has watched me over the last year and saw I had potential to do well in the wild card rides I did, we had a discussion about riding for the team in 2014 and we saw it as a fantastic opportunity.

“I would look to move onto the Superstock 1000 if I did well this season, then after a couple of years in that I would like to move into the British Superbike class.”

Tom will be racing on Yamaha R6’s next season although it will be a new bike he is not a total stranger to riding that brand.

“Before I was riding the triumph I was riding a 4 cylinder Kawasaki ZXR400 for a season and to be honest I got on with it better than the Triumph, so I think It will be more suited to my way of riding plus we will have data logging which enables you to work out what you’re doing right and where you’re going wrong.”

Tom has the nickname of Sharkey and it has nothing to do with his pedigree on a bike but a family thing.

“Both my cousins and my uncle are in the Navy and most last surnames have a nickname and ward happens to be Sharkey so I thought it was fairly fitting!”

Tom as yet is not setting himself any major goals for next season but he is hoping to learn from Go Racing.

He said: “I aim to ride to my full potential at all times and with some of the lap times from my wildcard rides last year, they show I should be up the sharp end.

“Most definitely with the amount of experience and knowledge of the bike I should learn a lot about my riding style and how I can Improve on where I am lacking, I am looking forward to learning more about suspension and handling which is essential in such a competitive class.”

Finally we asked Tom how he got into motorbikes and racing and whether his parents had any influence on that.

“My Dad has always been into motorcycles but never raced or even done a track day! When I was five me and my brother had a Yamaha PW50 which we learnt to ride but the racing started because my dad entered a competition to win a mini Moto from the MCN magazine.”

“He sent the answer off on a motorcycle mudguard! We won the mini Moto and started racing it on go kart tracks and it all went from there.”