Emerging talent Marcus Hamod fought his way to the top step at Queensland Raceway, winning multiple races throughout the weekend to take a breakthrough Supersport 300 round win in the Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK). Having his first-ever race start just over two years ago, the 15-year-old has shown he is a rapid learner and features in our latest Profiled piece.

Unlike most junior Australian riders, Hamod didn’t race dirt track prior to his commencing his road racing career, meaning his maiden major competitive outing came at the opening round of the Oceania Junior Cup (OJC) in 2021 at Winton.

Learning the ropes in road racing that season, Hamod put the experience from his rookie campaign to good use in 2022, winning a race at Phillip Island’s opener, also scoring a second-place finish at Wakefield along with the OJC lap record at the circuit.

“I think the Oceania Junior Cup is a very good program and when I had Gary McCoy as the coach in 2022, it was a really good experience with him,” Hamod explained. “He was really helpful, and he was always onto us about ‘everybody is doing this, you’ve got to do this’ sort of thing.

Image: Foremost Media.

“It was really helpful in a way, because everyone was learning the same thing. I felt like it was really helpful for me as a rider developing those skills. In 2021, when I was in the Oceania Junior Cup as well, it was good because I had Damian Cudlin and I used to do the MotoStars days, I still do now. I find them really helpful.”

Hamod also started competing on an R3 in the 2023 season, ending the year in fine form at The Bend as he showed the potential to battle right at the pointy end of the field, mixing it with a selection of the best riders onboard that capacity as 2022 ASBK concluded.

“I was really stoked to be at The Bend on the R3. I find that it is my favourite track towards the back-end of the year,” Hamod said. “When I was training a lot, every Tuesday I would go to the go-kart track and I felt like that skill, getting onto the Ohvale and cutting laps with Levi and Jai Russo, that felt really, really good – being able to do aggressive moves and getting more track time with others so I can learn my racecraft.

“That was really helpful as soon as I went onto the 300, I found that it was really good because I could learn how to do those corners like I did on the Ohvale, and it was really good a skillset.

The next breakthrough for Hamod came in the third round of the 2023 Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK), winning the opening race of the Supersport 300 and R3 Cup categories on his way to taking the Supersport 300 overall win that weekend. His strong results in Queensland see him third in the Supersport 300 standings and fourth in the R3 Cup title race entering the next round of both series at Morgan Park, between 14-16 July.

Image: Foremost Media.

“It was very emotional, crossing the line in first,” Marcus added. “I stood up a little bit before the chequered flag, but yeah it felt good to finally be on the podium on the 300 and I was pretty stoked with the result from the weekend. Every race, it felt like I was more competitive in the class now sort of thing.

“Coming away from Queensland Raceway I feel a lot more confident going into Morgan Park. Morgan Park is a track that I quite like, and I’m thinking with the new tar it is going to be a lot of fun and exciting to see what the lap times will be. But yeah, I’m really looking forward to the next round at Morgan Park, should be a lot of fun.”

While he is determined to finish the 2023 season in the best possible way onboard the R3, Hamod has his sights set on transitioning to the Supersport 600 class in 2024, with the potential of competing in some additional club and ASBK races this year onboard the higher capacity machine. He competed onboard a Honda in the St George Summer Night Series races and showed promising pace for how little time he had spent on a 600.

“Myself, Dad and Will Davidson, my mechanic, have all started discussing my plans for next year,” he added. “We are hoping that we can jump onboard the CBR600 in the Motocity team. I think that is the route for me, since I am a taller rider.

“After this year we are going to try and see if we can start getting more track time on the 600, hopefully do more race meets and stuff to get me prepared for next year.”