Stefan Hill has been announced as a CIA Landlord Insurance Honda rider for the 2016 FIM Supersport World Championship season.

Hill, who hails from Coventry and will celebrate his 18th birthday the week of the opening race at Phillip Island, will partner 2015 Qatar race winner Kyle Smith.

Hill has featured in the Pata European Junior Cup – Powered by Honda since the 2013 season; he ended the first year 31st overall before progressing to 18th in 2014 and 12th in 2015.

At the end of this year’s season, he made his World Supersport debut for Simon Buckmaster’s team in the Qatar finale, qualifying 19th and finishing 16th.

Stefan Hill:
“I am ecstatic. It is a dream come true for me so early in what I hope will be a long career. My father and I have done a good job getting here and I am so grateful to my sponsors - especially Phoenix Services who have been with me for the last few years and helped me to get here now, I really appreciate it.

I can’t wait to get the season started, especially as I left Qatar on what I thought was such a good note and a really strong debut. I am happy to be part of the CIA Landlord Insurance Honda team because we all work together really well.

Most of all 2016 will be a learning season. I will do the best I can and get the best result possible. I will try and improve every weekend, whether that is improving position or cutting the time back from the leader. I’ll take it as it comes and gain as much experience as possible. Having Kyle alongside is good because he was the rider coach in the European Junior Cup, so he’s helped me before and it’s a real bonus having him in the team.

I am currently doing my last year of A-levels and trying to train as much as possible in the afternoons after school. But I am still at school everyday and have exams at the end of next year. I’ve managed to race through my GCSEs and A/S levels and now I’ve got A2s. I’ve done well in them and built a good relationship with the school to allow me time off to go racing - they understand it is a career option.

“My mates had not realised the level I was at before and now it is world level it has kind of impressed and surprised them. You don’t expect a school kid to go all round the world racing - it’s a bit of a shock to me, let alone them!”

Simon Buckmaster, CIA Landlord Insurance Honda Team Manager:
“With Stefan we have a young raw talent that we want to take to the top. 2016 will be a learning season for him and with Kyle he has an inspirational team-mate who rides hard and knows what it takes to win races.

Our ambition with Stefan is to learn and achieve the best results we can. We look forward to seeing how far up the results sheets he can climb.

Stefan is one of the future talents of motorcycle racing and at 17 years of age is an exciting signing for CIA Landlord Insurance Honda. He rode well at Qatar in 2015 and showed real hunger to succeed. We recognise that and welcome him to the team, he’s going to fit in very well indeed.”