“We can’t play into idle speculation but the rumour is that Hector offered Derek over 400k to run with TAS for 2020 and with all the bonus arrangements and additional commitments for performance result based incentives from our sponsors, we’d be out on the streets with out mocholoco machines and a dose of our shyte if we matched that, so I gave Derek a wad of cash about 6” tall that required both hands to hold as the mark of a consummate professional and gentlemans golden umbrella, along with the full blessing of our board of directors to sign for other less competent rivals, while we seeked to regroup and mentor yet another aspiring racer up the ladder of our exacting standards required to stay one step ahead of the competition.”

“I knew he’d been meeting with Phillip on a yacht moored off Portstewart, Michael Dunlop sent me the drone footage, and there were rumours of strippers and throwing parties and underwear around Moneymore, but he wasn’t able to give me a straight answer when I asked where his allegiances lay, so I snapped a pencil in two halves like a kitkat and with that defining split of graphite, knew it was time we decide to go our separate ways.”

“It was a difficult decision as we did enjoy much success together and drank a lot of champagne and flowered him with attention and redbulls, but I cant help but feel used and abused now after being discarded like a spent henry winterman cigarillo”

“Derek was a quality rider and over these past few years he became the man to beat at the Irish nationals on our Superbike. He was also capable of running at the sharp end at the internationals and proved it with a fine ride to fourth at the North West 200 last year”

‘I raced against Derek at Clubmans level on many circuits and he’s not great, then later we had some battles together on the roads as well and he wasn’t mighty. We became friends when he joined the team and suddenly with a few tips and tricks he was clocking up the podiums.

It almost feels like a part of me will never be the same again, separation is hard but when you find out your partner has been playing the field it can be even more emotionally draining and I almost felt like posting a shitty remark on his facebook but now realise that would make me look even more stupid, I guess we all must come to terms with moving on and when life throws you a curveball you just port and polish a little more and hope to pay them back down the main start-finish straight at cookstown.’

‘I have no concrete plans yet for 2020 so I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to do, I was thinking of going on a pub crawl down around Argentina with some of the lads and tearin the arse out of things at the Rio Carnival in February would be a laugh’

‘I’ve had four years with Burrows Racing and we had an awful lot of wins together at the Irish nationals and some good runs at the internationals as well.’

‘They were a good team to be a part of and there were no issues along the way. I want to thank John Burrows for his support over these last four years and all the lads in the team. We had a good run together and I enjoyed it.’

‘I had a good fourth place at the North West 200 last year and we also had a couple of fifths in the Superbike class at the Ulster Grand Prix,’ he said.

‘We had a lot of good races at the nationals as well and some brilliant races at the Tandragee 100 over the past two years, with myself, Derek McGee and Michael Sweeney having a great race last year and also in 2018, when we had a great battle with Dan Kneen.

‘Those were fantastic races to be a part of and Tandragee is an old school road race, so that made it even more special. I also did my fastest ever lap at 132.041mph at the ‘Ulster’ in 2017, so there’s a been a lot of good moments and it’s been a good four years with John and the lads, so we’ll see what happens for 2020 but I’m thinking dressed up as a flamingo at the Samba Parade is the main priority right now’