Australian Hunter Corney has been crowned champion as the 2024 Oceania Junior Cup at the weekend unearthed more Australasian road-racing stars of the future.
In terms of country-versus-country Oceania honours, the five-rider Australian squad edged out the five young riders representing New Zealand in the Trans-Tasman stakes – Haydn Fordyce (pictured here), Hunter Charlett, Alvin Wu, Ryder Chamberlain and Nixon Frost – to the tune of 257 points to 215.
The Oceania Junior Cup’s mantle as the breeding ground for the next wave of circuit racing superstars has continued in 2024, with another season of fast and furious action coming to an end with round six featuring the Australia-versus-New Zealand Trans-Tasman Challenge at The Bend, in South Australia, from November 8-10.
As expected, 13-year-old Queenslander Corney became the latest champion in the FIM-backed and Dorna Sports-endorsed Road to MotoGP pathways program, which has enjoyed heightened Australian championship status for the first time.
Corney was the runaway star of the six-round OJC show in 2024
Corney’s five-second win in the first of three races at The Bend – a gargantuan margin in OJC terms – on Saturday guaranteed him overall championship success, and he also went on to win the round with 1-5-2 results, finishing ahead of Connor Lewis (5-1-4) and New Zealander Haydn Fordyce, the latter making a one-off OJC return to help bolster New Zealand’s stocks in the race-within-a-race FIM Oceania Trans-Tasman Challenge.
To underscore the developmental credentials of the OJC, Corney also competed as a wildcard in the final round of the 2024 Asia-Pacific Championship at The Bend, embracing the challenge with round-winning first and second placings.
Meanwhile, back in OJC series stakes, Lewis and Rossi McAdam won their first OJC series races at the weekend to round out The Bend program – and in much more familiar wafer-thin winning margins for the young riders.
Charlett was the only Kiwi rider to contest the earlier rounds of the OJC series and his results were good enough for him to clinch third spot overall for the 2024 series.
The final series standings saw Corney a runaway winner on 411pts from Ethan Johnson (319), Hunter Charlett (267), Nikolas Lazos (249) and McAdam (246), while Australia won the FIM Oceania Trans-Tasman Challenge over New Zealand by 42pts (257 to 215).
The Oceania Junior Cup will return in 2025 for a seventh year of competition.
© Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ
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