Cameron Swain talks bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup success

Cameron Swain – OJC Champ 2021

At four-years-old Cameron Swain had a crash on his brand-new Yamaha PW50 and hung up his boots swearing he wouldn’t ride again. Fast forward nine years and he is Australia’s latest motorcycle racing rising star and hot property, winning last weekend’s 2021 bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup title after what can only be described as the perfect season.

Unlike recent OJC recruits, the 13-year-old from Queensland didn’t come from a dirt track or motocross background, he ventured into racing on a Metrakit 80, eventually going through the North Coast Road Racers and MotoStars Junior program run by former Australian MotoGP rider, OJC and GTR MotoStars Team Coach, Damian Cudlin.

Swain’s 2021 season over three rounds and nine races of a COVID interrupted mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship, presented by Motul, saw him amass a super impressive six wins, two second places and one third – the only OJC rider to podium at every race, had never crashed in two years, and won the 2021 title by 56 points.

His small build and raw talent, as the youngest competitor in the field, was noticed immediately in 2020 from the opening round the at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit where he battled with the front runners finishing in sixth place. No mean feat as the OJC competition is intense and often with three-quarters of the field covered by only a second or two.

Swain would finish the 2020 Championship in fourth place, a year in which he learnt the importance of race-craft and suspension set-up.

Cameron Swain: “At the end of last year, we had a bad set-up all weekend and we were talking to Oceania Junior Cup Technical Manager Trevor Manly, as at that time as people were telling us the set-up was right, but I was struggling all weekend. I had a look at the front runner’s suspension set-up and made those changes and I ended up on the podium. I discovered it was all about suspension, pre-load, ride height, not just about riding. People think it just comes down to the good rider, but if you have crap settings its never going to work.”

Swain said his father Jason was always on the phone to Manly, searching for answers for the right set-up.

Swain: “We would be at Morgan Park all the time and I’d get into tyre slides, and we would call Trevor and he would tell us what to do. Also, Joe Salter from Ride Dynamics who is a suspension tech, and rider coaching was helping me a lot. We would call him and or Trevor and they would tell us what to change and we just kept on improving.”

Swain admits he also needed to make adjustments to his riding style if he was to compete at the front of the pack 2021.

Swain: “Joe is not a bad rider himself and Stephanie Redman also helped with coaching advice. I needed to improve on the way I tipped in into the corner, where I looked through the corner, and my braking into a corner. I learnt how to use less brake to have more speed into the corner, as I’d brake late and really hard, but I’d lose too much speed and slow down in the corners. It was really Trevor who helped us sort out the forks and how they should be, in particular spring rates and fork height, and we have pretty much set that and stuck to it for the whole year. Between the two of them we found this awesome set-up.”

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The OJC class is where riders not only learn the importance of suspension, ride heights, health and fitness, but also the importance of slip-streaming to not only qualify well, but also to utilise it on track to win races.

For Swain however, he was often qualifying on clear track away from other riders, something he preferred, and which helped him qualify at the top, and start the races from the front row.

Swain: “The way I did it (to win the title) on my own was pure corner speed, they would use less corner speed and they would catch me on the straights slip-streaming, but because I gained my speed on the corners where they would lose so much, they couldn’t gain on the straights.”

Swain admitted he didn’t think at the start of the year he would be crowned a Champion.

Swain: “But I was on the podium at every race, and it felt great getting the photos on the straight with the other champions Wayne Maxwell (Superbike), Broc Pearson (Supersport), and Ben Baker (Supersport 300 and R3 Cup), as it was always a dream. I saw Carter Thompson (2019 OJC and 2020 R3 Cup Champion) do it and I was working my hardest to get there, I knew I had a good shot at it this year and I knew this was the year to pull it out. It is pretty good; I got the most podiums and victories and for me this was more exciting to me.

“Beating Carters records as he is a pretty big name at the moment is a cool thing. I teared up on the in lap, I still had that feeling where I wanted to win that race but wrapping it up with two races to go was just awesome as the next two races, I could just go for it and not worry about crashing. The emotions kicked in on the in lap, thinking about the whole year, and when I came and hugged Dad and a good mate of mine Johnny Lytras and Aaron, it was pretty cool.”

While the ASBK season is over, the Swain clan now turn their attention to 2022, and it seems Cameron is hot property with a number of Supersport 300 and R3 Cup teams, as well as teams from the British Talent Cup that are interested in the young man’s talents.

Swain has big dreams and plans for the future and hopes to one day make it to MotoGP.

bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup Championship standings