Cormac Buchanan
FIM JuniorGP Moto3 Championship
With Stephanie Redman – Images Rafa Marrodan
As we are in the midst of the European summer break, we thought we would touch on another young gun making waves in the FIM JuniorGP Championship Moto3 class, Cormac Buchanan. He is the only Kiwi flying the flag for New Zealand in both this and the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup championship. the latter of which will race this weekend at Red Bull Ring as a supporting act to MotoGP.
Competing in his first ever road race at Wakefield Park as part of the inaugural Oceania Junior Cup Series (OJC) in 2019, it has been a fast-paced learning curve from the Yamaha YZF-R15 to the Moto3 machine.
The same year Cormac competed in OJC, he also tried out for the Red Bull Rookies Cup, making it through to the third and final day of selections. He wasn’t successful for the following year’s championship, however, he was selected to compete in 2021 and is now half way through his second Red Bull Rookies Cup season.
Riders often couple these two championships together to increase track time and rider development. For 2022 Cormac is also competing in the European Talent Cup Championship (ETC) with the AGR Racing Team.
This is the entry level class for the FIM Junior GP European Championship and provides a good introduction, however, the motorcycles ridden in the Red Bull Rookies Cup are closer to that of the Moto3 class. So, when AGR Racing Team boss Anscari Nadal presented him with the opportunity to compete on a Moto3 at the Portimao round, of course he jumped at it.
Cormac rode at Portimao earlier in the year for official testing with Red Bull Rookies (but unfortunately missed the opening race weekend due to Covid) and showed good pace, so it was a logical choice for his FIM Junior GP European Championship Moto 3 debut.
This class is fiercely competitive, and Cormac managed a respectable 19th place finish in Sunday’s race, finishing just 32-seconds behind the leader and in the battle for 13th position.
Stepping up categories I asked him about the differences between the two bikes.
Cormac Buchanan shared, “The front end is a lot stronger on the Moto3… With the ETC bikes, you have to be super smooth… the bike can’t handle too much aggression as the front isn’t very forgiving.”
The jump from ETC to Moto3 is a transition that takes some riders a full season to get their head around, of course riding the Red Bull Rookies KTM Moto3’s will help, but to achieve this result in one weekend is a testament to Cormac’s working process.
Right from the start he gelled with the bike, and he gives a lot of credit to his AGR Team for this, as the bike was working well from the first ride, with only some fine tuning needed over the weekend. He finished the first official practice session with a time of 1:50.223, just 1.844 seconds from the leader, landing him in P24.
Despite a small low side in FP2, he managed to re-join quickly and continued to work through the hotter conditions, improving his time again finishing 21st on the time sheets. Qualifying on Saturday he put down an impressive time of 1:49.284, this was just 1.102 seconds from the combined fastest qualifying time and put him P18 on the grid for Sunday’s race.
While Cormac has raced with some of these riders in the Red Bull Rookies Cup, many of them are new. Not only would he be trying to put down his best performance possible, he would also be trying to learn the riding styles and race craft of those around him.
“It was definitely more aggressive and that impacted my race initially as I was monstered out at turn 1 in the opening lap and pushed off track at turn 3 – talk about one heck of an initiation to the junior world championship! But I managed to regain my pace quickly and closed down a 4-second gap to get back in the hunt with the group battling for 13th overall,” Cormac stated when asked about his racing experience in the Moto3 class, “I finished 19th, so satisfied with that for my first race and just three days on the Moto3.”
Overall, it was a very successful weekend for Cormac, showing his riding style is suited to the Moto3 machine and that progression will come from his willingness to do the work. This eye-opening experience has shown Cormac what he needs to do going forward and this is where he will focus his training during the summer break.
When asked about having another opportunity to compete on the Moto3 with the AGR Team, he explained “The team is definitely keen to see me out there to gain more experience and time on the bike to keep the momentum going. I need to make the most of every chance I get to ride with the aim of putting together a successful 2023 campaign in JuniorGP on the Moto3.”
With the FIM Junior GP European Championship holding a stand alone Moto3 round at Misano World Circuit at the start of September, as a support to the MotoGP World Championship, Cormac will be once again be riding the Moto3 with AGR Team.
I have a saying I use a bit when talking to riders and parents, ‘It doesn’t matter where you are, as long as you are progressing.’ It’s been great following Cormac’s journey and I look forward to seeing him continue the progress at Misano in just under a months’ time.
