Dorna aiming to launch British Talent Cup

MotoGP organisers Dorna have confirmed that they’re considering setting up a British Talent Cup series, aimed at developing young talent from the British Isles and headed by hugely experienced rider, team and series manager Alberto Puig.

Speaking for the first time about the much-rumoured series, Puig says that he envisions seeing it line up on the grid for the first time in 2018, with the project feeding into the new Team GB Moto3 team that John McPhee will ride for in 2017 and that Puig will also manage.

“There’s an idea to start to investigate and research the possibilities of expanding racing in the UK. We will probably try and make some sort of selection program this year, and the target will be to try and create some sort of British Talent Cup in the next year.

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 “If we want to expand motorcycle racing in England, we have to create a cup where kids can come and race. Like we did in Asia and Spain – but also they must have some sort of target; a team where they can go and race. So a team will start this year, to be a reference for these kids, with John McPhee. From then, we’ll see how things go. Normally when we start a project we don’t know where we’ll get to – but we know where we’ll start. If we can replicate the success of the Asia Talent Cup riders then we’ll be happy, but at the moment it’s difficult to say.”

However, there may be roadblocks ahead for the series in terms of track time. MCE British Superbike bosses MSV already have a similar series, running standard Honda Moto3 machines within the Motostar class – and may object to seeing that series diminished in return for giving up track time to an outside project.

MCN understands that sponsorship for the series also remains in doubt, with Dorna keen to recruit MotoGP broadcasters BT Sports as title sponsors but the channel reportedly reluctant to commit until their separate TV rights deal is confirmed.

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