As many as 17 different flags adorn the front wheel fairings of the KTM RC 250R bikes as a slew of teenagers, including a Kiwi, chase their dreams in the 2023 Red Bull Rookies Cup.
Invercargill’s Cormac Buchanan is among those who have dreams of being added to the list of top performers at round two of the series at Jerez, in Spain, this coming weekend.
Jerez is a place where the racing is always close and dramatic and the atmosphere electric and the young Kiwi will be looking to improve and move up the standings. Buchanan (pictured here) finds himself 17th overall after the Portimão season opener in Portugal last month.
This weekend’s second event of this year’s Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup takes us back to where we started 200 races ago.
Saturday’s sensation will be race 199 with the milestone being reached on Sunday morning.
That first Rookies Cup race in 2007 was won by Lorenzo Savadori and the Italian went on to take another victory at Donington Park, in the United Kingdom.
Yet he finished second in the title chase to Johann Zarco, who was third in Jerez, but later claimed four victories.
A single race each weekend that first year and now we fortunately have two and the chance for Cup leader Angel Piqueras, the 16-year-old Spaniard, to make it a double as he did at Portimão.
Last season Piqueras recorded 2nd and 6th at Jerez and it was arch-rival Màximo Quiles who took his maiden win in race two after a 4th in race one.
Quiles scored a total of 3 wins in 2023 on his way to 3rd in the title chase while Piqueras was on the top step twice and 5 points behind at the end of the year.
Portimão was not kind to 15-year-old Spaniard Quiles and he stands 14th in the points table, 45 points adrift of the lead so he will have to produce his best now. He was certainly not slow in Portugal and is well at home in Jerez.
Casey O’Gorman also has solid Jerez form with 5th in both races last time and the 15-year-old Irishman is in great fettle, frustrated by two 4th places in the opening round this year and determined to end the podium drought that has bugged him since taking 2nd and 3rd in the Portuguese opener last season.
Also very much on form are the Porimão podium men, Álvaro Carpe who lies second in the points table, Marcos Ruda who is just a single point behind plus Hakim Danish and Rico Salmela.
Carpe, the 15-year-old Spaniard, achieved a dream with his debut 2nd in the first race of the year and might even go one better this weekend but Ruda, his fellow countryman, has the same idea. The 18-year-old is far stronger than last season and should be in the lead battle.
Danish, the 15-year-old Malaysian, had a brilliant debut weekend in Portimão and will be shooting for the podium again. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Finn Salmela already scored a victory last year and is aiming for a whole bag of them this season as he chases the Red Bull Rookies Cup.
© Photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com
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