Canterbury’s Cameron Hudson is on only his debut season in the 600cc Supersport class, but already he’s starting to make an impact.

The 19-year-old Christchurch scrap metal yard worker took his distinctive orange and white Yamaha R6 to 11th, 9th and 8th-place finishes at the penultimate round of the New Zealand Superbike Championships at Taupo last weekend and he heads to Manfeild, on the outskirts of Feilding, for the fourth and final round this weekend with high hopes of breaking into the championship top five.

He is currently eighth overall in the 29-rider field, but Manfeild’s finale is a ‘double header’, with five races over three days, so anything is still possible.

The top three or four riders in the 600 Supersport are realistically out of Hudson’s reach, but there are just 26 points between fifth and eighth place as the riders head to Feilding.

Hudson’s rise through the sport’s ranks has been remarkably swift.

He began riding motorcycles as a five-year-old, tootling around a go-kart track on a Yamaha PW50 dirt bike.

“That was until the council put a ban on it. Then I got my first road bike when I was 13 and in 2009 (when he was aged just 14) I rode my first nationals event. I won the Ruapuna round in the streetstock class that year, battling with (now Kiwi international) Jake Lewis. I finished seventh overall in the class at the end of the year, but I hadn’t raced the full season.

“A knee injury forced me to miss most of 2010.

“This year is my first full season on a 600cc bike. It’s definitely a step up to ride the bigger bike. I qualified third at the opening round of this season at Ruapuna and I was on the pace with the leaders until I had gearbox issues and so didn’t start the next two races.

“I didn’t have much luck at Ruapuna and that continued at round two at Levels (near Timaru) when a hose clip came off and poured water over my rear tyre, resulting in me being spat off on the straight.

“I really think it’s just a matter of time before I’m on the podium. My lap times are just half a second slower than the guys who are winning these races.”

This weekend at Manfeild could be a watershed moment for the young racer.

© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

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