Hankook Tyres Suzuki rider Brayden Elliott has emerged as one of Australia’s brightest young road racing stars in 2015, leading both the Australasian Supersport Championship (FX-ASC) and Australian Supersport Championship (ASBK) riding a GSX-R600.

Elliott, 20, was a national and state champion in dirt track and speedway prior to taking up road racing at the end of 2013. He debuted in the final round of the FX-ASC series that year before diving head-first into the national FX-ASC Supersport ranks fulltime last year – resulting in a solid seventh overall – while still competing in dirt track on occasion.

Some observers may recognise Elliott from his involvement in The Ultimate Rider reality television program from 2013, in which he appeared as a fresh-faced dirt tracker about to try his hand on the tarmac. It’s all played a part in him becoming the consummate professional that he is today.

“When we first really came into road racing at the start of 2014, I already had a lot of racing experience in dirt track and speedway,” Elliott explains. “Even though I hadn’t necessarily been on a road bike, I started racing when I was four, so I had a lot of experience and The Ultimate Rider definitely helped with my profile at that point as well.

“Last year was really just a huge learning year, and it still is, but I wasn’t expecting good results in 2014. It was a matter of learning to improve and then I knew for this year that with everything in place, with a bit more bike time and confidence that we could be pretty competitive.”

Image: Keith Muir.

Elliott’s ties with Phil Tainton Racing riding a Suzuki crossed over from his dirt track career, resulting in him starting out on a GSX-R600 upon his transition to road racing, and he’s since gone on to effectively put the brand back on the Supersport map nationally.

As a natural extension of his ongoing relations with longtime factory Suzuki team manager Tainton, Elliott has triple Australian Superbike Champion Shawn Giles in his corner as riding coach and mentor. Combined with Elliott’s natural talents and noted work ethic, the structure has fast-forwarded his climb to the top of the leaderboard in both the FX-ASC and ASBK series this season.

“I had a learner-approved street bike at the time when I wanted to try road racing, which I sold, and Phil had Troy Herfoss’ old practice bike still sitting in his shop,” he recalls. “I used the money from selling my street bike to buy the 2008 bike from Phil, which I still have today as my spare or wet bike.

“That’s how it all started – I had a Suzuki dirt bike, got to know Phil Tainton and, when I wanted a road bike, I trusted the bikes that he had for sale. We’ve just kept growing the relationship from there, because I obviously wanted to be involved with Phil and Gilesy as well, riding a Suzuki. I’ve stayed with the brand since then.”

Despite competing as a privateer and contesting both the FX-ASC and ASBK championships, Elliott has one of the most impressive outfits in the country and a long list of supportive sponsors. Many of them have carried over from dirt track, which is easy to see why when you factor in his professionalism and on-track performances.

Image: Andrew Gosling (tbgsport).

“Over the years in dirt track I’ve been able to form some good relationships with sponsors and most of those companies started helping me out from when I was around 10 years old,” Elliott says. “They’ve stuck by me all these years and as my results have gotten better, they’ve come on board even more.

“I’ve been fortunate that a lot of the sponsors I had in dirt track crossed over into road racing, so when I told them that was the path I was going to pursue, they made the jump over with me. I was pretty lucky that when I started here I had a good basis of sponsors already with me.”

And looking ahead, if Elliott doesn’t end up heading overseas for 2016, there’s every chance we will see him step up to the Superbike division domestically on board a Suzuki GSX-R1000. For many – especially Tainton and Giles themselves – it would be a special reunion with a Suzuki contesting the premier class once again, albeit in a privateer program.

“Chances are I will be on a Superbike if I stick around in Australia next year,” he confirms. “I actually had about seven laps try on one last week, just a session at a track day, which was pretty fun. That’s an option for next year, to see if I can mix it with the big guys.

“In years to come I’d love to see myself in the British championship or something like that, but we need to work out the finer details for something like that. I like the look of the Asian championship as well, but we will see what comes.”