Martin Jessopp will return to the MCE British Superbike championship with Ridersmotorcycles BMW this year as he focuses on moving towards the sharp end of the grid.

Despite a BSB campaign hit by injury in 2016, Jessopp recorded a top ten finish in race one at Thruxton to demonstrate his outright pace and finished his racing season on a high with a rostrum result at the Macau Grand Prix in November.

Jessopp returns with dealership-based Ridersmotorcycles BMW for the new campaign and is relishing pre-season testing with a number of new updates on the S1000RR as he looks to return to his top ten pace from Thruxton.

"We are looking forward to getting out testing ready for the start of the season after the result we had at Macau," Jessopp said. "We know that the BMW has big potential and we showed that when everything is right we can be pushing inside the top ten.

"We have some new upgrades for this season including the new swingarm that we will be testing, so that's a big positive already. You obviously want the next season to be better than the one before so we are aiming high this year."

Jessopp becomes the 23rd name confirmed on the 2017 BSB grid after the surprise return of Josh Brookes having signed for Anvil Hire Yamaha.