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For the second year in a row the European Junior Cup has been powered by Honda and backed by the manufacturer’s title sponsor in WSBK, Pata. The young talents taking part in the one-make, entry level series of the Superbike World Championship have produced some great racing astride their identical EJC-spec CBR500R and the ones who stepped up last year to the Superstock classes have already proved to be ready to challenge for top positioning.

“We’ve been very lucky this year to produce some great spectacles, perhaps one of the best races of the weekend, sometimes arguably the best race” said Gerry Bryce. “That shows the level of the competition and how hard the riders are pushing, really. We are also pleased also that in the Superstock classes the graduates from last year are doing so well, we’ve had podiums with Kevin Manfredi, Ilya Mikhalchik is being very strong and Richard Bodis looks very good at the moment. Of course Peter Sebestyen is doing a very good job in Superbike, which is a very good jump. We are very pleased with how the progress is working.”

Bryce reckons that the Honda CBR500R is the right machine for the series and he is keen to keep the package unchanged next year, aside from further development of the bike: “It will be more of the same really. We are still continuingly developing the bike. It is a production bike and we want to keep it this way. All I can say about this bike is that it fits perfectly for this role, the riders never criticise the bike even though all of them would like more power. All riders want more power, all the way up to MotoGP! The bike handles well it is safe and completely reliable and the crash damages are cheap, so I think we will continue with the CBR500R and we will welcome a new batch of riders to World Superbike.”