Australian teenager Carter Thompson secured his next step on the ‘Road to MotoGP’ by earning a coveted spot in the 2023 Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup (RBRC). Having achieved success domestically winning Oceania Junior Cup (OJC) and R3 Cup titles, Thompson currently competes in the Idemitsu Asia Talent Cup (ATC) and Hawkers European Talent Cup (ETC), with his focus firmly set on a strong end to both championships. CycleOnline caught up with the 14-year-old to get his Fast Thoughts on the RBRC selection and racing overseas.

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Getting selected for the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup… 

It was great that I got selected and the importance of it is massive, they are all of the best riders in the world, in that one class, so to be riding up against them next year will be great and obviously very hard. When I got my name called out at the tryouts, it was like a relief from all of the nerves and that, but afterwards, it felt really good. At the selection event, they split everyone [115 riders] into two days. I was selected for day two, so we did two sessions on the Wednesday and then there was a meeting where we found out who would ride again on Thursday [for further evaluation]. We did two sessions on the Thursday and after that, there was another meeting where we found out who gets to join the Rookies Cup next year.

Racing in the European Talent Cup (ETC) and Asia Talent Cup (ATC)…

There’s not a heap of difference between the two bikes [both Honda NSF250R’s]. In ETC you can change a few more things on the bike, with the full data logging system and a few changes to the ECU management system, but there’s still not much you can change on them and they are pretty basic. ETC for sure is another level compared to ATC, it’s a lot harder – all of the Europeans are very fast. The competition is still tough in ATC though. Every single weekend in ETC, there are 55 of us trying out for 30 positions on the grid.

The upcoming ATC round in Motegi… 

I’ve got no prior knowledge of the Motegi circuit as I haven’t been there yet. It looks like a really good track so I’m excited for it and the goals for the weekend are to podium and hopefully get a win. I’ve been doing heaps of riding and preparation, a lot of cycling and training to get ready for the upcoming races.

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Being based near Barcelona, Spain…

There are heaps of places you can go and train, like we have three motocross tracks nearby, three kart tracks and three dirt tracks. Where we are living, we can go trials riding right here. So there are heaps of places, a lot more than Australia.

Benefits of racing in the Oceania Junior Cup (OJC) before heading overseas…

Racing in that helped with the racecraft side of things, being able to make moves, fight in a pack and see how you are trying to lead the race. All of that kind of stuff, I learned a fair bit from the Oceania Junior Cup.

Plans for next year alongside the Red Bull Rookies Cup…

We are thinking ETC again because I am still not old enough for the Junior Moto3 World Championship, I’ve still got one more year. So, we are looking at hopefully ETC and Red Bull Rookies.