Image: Russell Colvin.

Dual Supersport 300 and Yamaha R3 Cup champion Cameron Dunker has confirmed that he will make the step to the Supersport class this season, having his first proper ride on an R6 last weekend at the St George Summer Night Series races.

Dunker capped off an immensely successful campaign last year with an overall victory in both classes at The Bend on his way to being crowned double champion, ultimately winning each category with a commanding points buffer.

Naturally, his step for the 2023 season is now clear as he will graduate to the Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) Supersport ranks with the GTR MotoStars team, looking to absorb as much information as possible in his rookie campaign in the class.

“It’s always good, being a double champion and moving to the next class,” Dunker said to CycleOnline.com. “I feel like I finished the 300s off in a positive way, so that’s really good.

“This year I’m not really expecting… I want to do good, but as a rookie you have got to learn all of the tracks again on the bigger bike. It will be difficult, but I am ready for the challenge and it should be a good year.”

Dunker completed his first competitive outing on a 600 last weekend at the night series races at Sydney Motorsport Park, showing positive progress across the two days to post a 1m35.4530s.

“First ride on the 600, it was a lot different to the R3, bigger and a lot more power and that,” Dunker added. “It was just a bit to get used to that.

“I didn’t have too bad of results, I was improving my time and position every race on Friday and then on Saturday we did a ride day and further improved my time by a fair bit. It was a really positive day.

“Heading into Saturday night, I was pretty confident on the bike by then and I got a pretty good lap in qualifying, I was P8 I’m pretty sure it was. Race one it wasn’t really the greatest, I went into turn two and went a bit wide, hit the grass and had a crash.

“Then I had to start from the back in race two, I came through and got back to P10 and then the last race I was going good until the last lap when I got hit off the track at turn one, so I had to take the escape road. But overall, it was a pretty good weekend really.”

The 2023 ASBK season officially commences on 1-2 February with the pre-season test at SMSP, before round one takes place later next month between 23-26 February at Phillip Island.