There’s an Australian teenager currently on the rise in Europe that you should be keeping tabs on, with Carter Thompson becoming the first Australian to win in World Supersport 300 at Misano last month. Coupled with his recent Jerez victory in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup, the 17-year-old has been impressive across the board during 2025 and we were able to Check In with him for the latest on his journey so far.

Image: Supplied.

To do World Supersport 300 and then also the Red Bull Rookies Cup is kind of unique to ride two different completely different styles of bike, so how’s that been for you adjusting between the two different series?

Yeah, for me, I don’t mind switching bikes. Yeah, they are a lot different machines – one’s 140 kilos and one’s 185, so it’s a big difference there itself – but yeah, I’m able to switch bikes quite easily. 
The more racing is better, so that’s the good thing. The paddocks are a lot different, because it feels like the Superbike’s is more of a family environment – it’s just calmer [laughs].

Did you have a preference between the two, the GP bike or the production-type bike?

My preference would still have to be the grand prix bike, because it’s nice to ride, designed to race, whereas the 400, it’s not built to be a race bike. It doesn’t do everything that you want it to do compared to a GP bike.

You’ve been able to win in both categories this year, which is a really big achievement in itself. When you think back to Jerez and what you were able to do there, what was the feeling like to win in the Rookies for the first time?

Yeah, it was an unbelievable feeling. 
First win in Europe, and to do it at Jerez for the first round of the season, just an unbelievable feeling after all the hard work that’s gone into it from mum and dad – it was definitely a great feeling. It shows that the hard work’s paying off.

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How would you summarise your season outside of that?

It started quite good in Jerez, then Le Mans didn’t go too bad, but I’ve had a few DNFs in the last couple of rounds, which hasn’t helped me… making contact at Mugello with another rider and breaking the clutch lever, so I had to retire. It’s been an up and down season, but still not in a bad position. The speed’s there, I’ve just got to keep working on getting some good results, and it’s still shaping up to be a good season for me.

And then to just recently become the first Australian to win in World Superport 300 at Misano, that was another big result for you. How different was that and was that something you were kind of expecting or anticipating would be achievable this year? 


Yeah, definitely coming into this season in the 300s I was expecting to be up the front, fighting for wins and that. We struggled a bit at the start of the season with the bike, getting it in the right place with the set-up and yeah, that kind of stuff, but the team put in a lot of effort and at Misano came with a good bike that was competitive, so I was able to do my thing and just push as hard as I could. It’s definitely what we needed for the championship and it’s what the team wanted too. After winning the team championship last year, fighting for the championship, we needed to get back up on the podium or win and then keep the ball rolling for the rest of the season.

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It seemed like as soon as you got on that bike with the MTM Kawasaki team and in that environment, it kind of clicked pretty naturally straight away, too. 
Was that the feeling for you?

Yeah, everything’s working well with the team. I’ve been able to adapt quite easily to the bike, because it’s not the most difficult bike to ride, but you’ve just got to… It’s a production bike, so you can’t force it to do too much, you’ve got to let it do its thing and ride smooth. I’ve been working on getting my riding style down-pat, making small improvements with the bike, and that’s it.

What are your thoughts on the new World Sportbike category – the mid-capacity models – that will be introduced in place of WorldSSP300?

It seems like it’s going to be a good championship. Looking at it at the moment, it should make the racing a little bit safer, because it won’t be as big of a group at the front. It’ll definitely make the step to [WorldSSP] a bit easier, since the Sportsbikes have more power, twin discs, they’re a bit heavier so more like a Supersport with less power – it’ll definitely make it easier for the younger riders to step up to the 600 category in the coming years.


And just finally, you’re obviously on this pathway in Europe, and everybody’s big-picture goal is MotoGP, but what is more immediately the intention in the coming years?

Obviously the main goal is to get into the top of the GP paddock, but for now, it all depends on how the rest of the season goes, how the results come, and we’ll see what happens for next year and the years after. 
It’s the last year of the Rookies Cup for me, so we’ll see what happens from there.