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Twelve of the best…….. Rory selected for 2015 Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup!

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After three fabulous days at the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup selection event last week at Guadix near Granada in Spain, twelve teenagers have now been invited to join the 2015 Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup.

Selected from over 1000 applicants from around the world, Rory was invited along with 108 other young hopefuls from 30 nations to show their skills to a panel of experts made up of August Auinger (Austrian motorcycling legend and Rookies Cup Coach), Harold Bartol (Engineer and ex Grand-Prix rider), Peter Clifford (MotoGP expert and former Red Bull Yamaha team owner) and Dani Ribalta (high performance riding school instructor).

Day 1:  Rory’s track action was scheduled for the second day, with mostly Italian and Spanish riders filling the slots on Day 1. Two 15 minute sessions were all they had to learn the bikes, learn the track and to set some fast safe laps. From the 66 riders in Day 1, 19 were selected to go through to the final day.

Day 2:  Rory’s brief: Take it steady, learn the bike, learn the track and build up, putting in some good consistent laps.  So that’s what he did. The end of the day came and it was time for the judges’ decision.  From the 42 riders in Day 2, 23 were selected to go through to the final day, with Rory being one of five British and Irish riders to make it through to the final day.

Day 3 – Final Day:  The day started off cold but with clear skies it didn’t take long to heat up. By 10 o’clock the sun was beating down and track action began. Rory was in the fifth group of riders to go out. The session went well with Rory honing his lines, apexes, braking points and joining them all together with the view of putting in some fast consistent times in the final afternoon session. The afternoon session came round quickly and Rory went out with his goal firmly fixed in mind. He had to use everything he had learnt throughout his years of racing in this 15 minute session and make it count.

The Judges’ Decision: Almost two hours after the final session, the judges had made their decision… and the 42 riders were now down to 12.

Twelve of the best young riders in the world had been selected to join the 2015 Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup and Rory was one of them, the only Brit to make it through the tough selection process!

Rory said afterwards: “I can’t believe that I’m going to be riding in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup next year.  For me at my age it doesn’t get any better than this. I will be riding against the best young riders from all over the world who like me have been hand-picked by a panel of experts over a really intense few days of try outs. The last few days have been quite nerve racking as I knew there was so much at stake and I just wanted to try my hardest to get it right! I’m really happy and excited to get started and I am already in training for the start of the season.   I’d like to thank everyone who has helped me get to this stage in my racing, especially my Mum and Dad”.