Adrian Huertas (MTM Kawasaki) got off to a meteoric start in 2021. His claimed his first win of the the season in the opening race of the FIM Supersport 300 World Championship in Race 1 at Aragon, a success that he rounded off the next day with third place in Race 2.

Although it was Britain's Tom Booth-Amos (Fusport – RT Motorsports by SKM - Kawasaki) who came out on top in the Spanish Round, Huertas once again ranked among the fastest over the course of last weekend at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, where on Saturday he added his second win in the Championship and on Sunday 10th place in a hectic second race.

Ana Carrasco (Kawasaki Provec) stole the spotlight with her stunning victory in Race 2, Huertas finished the Round as the new leader of WorldSSP300 Championship and has become the first Spaniard to lead the general classification since Manuel Gonzalez (now Yamaha ParkinGo Team in WorldSSP) was crowned Champion at the end of the 2019 season.

"That is just a statistical data", says the 17-year-old rider about his brand-new leadership status. “Being the first now doesn't make much sense if you go down later. But hey, a few more dots always help!” Huertas, who this year competes in his second season in the Championship with the MTM Kawasaki team, has been confirmed in just four races as a possible contender for a crown that his compatriots Marc García (2017), Ana Carrasco (2018) won in previous editions and Manu Gonzalez (2019), a streak that was broken in 2020 with the emergence of now Jeffrey Buis. Now the Dutch champion and the Spanish rider share the same garage, and for the moment things are going better for the Spaniard.

“Last year was difficult,” says Huertas about his first campaign, then onboard a Yamaha, “but in the end we found the best possible option for this season, which was to join the world champion team. As soon as I got on the Kawasaki, I was already very fast; I was one of the surprises of the preseason and this surprise has been confirmed in these first races. I hope it continues like this this year!”

Integrated into the garage of one of the most powerful formations in the category, the Madrid rider shares space with Buis, Koen Meuffels and Yuta Okaya, three riders who were already racing for the Belgium-based team last year. "I entered as the new one," explains Huertas. “It's like when you come to class the first day, and maybe someone underestimates you a bit, but things are demonstrated with facts and I think that I am demonstrating it well and that I am at the level of the team; I believe that together we can carry out a good campaign.”

Having almost doubled the number of points achieved in 2020 in just four races, has the young Huertas presented his candidacy for his title?

“It is too early to say, but it is true that I am one of the strongest, along with Booth-Amos. We will have to continue working throughout the year to confirm this trend and continue to score points. I think that the potential of the riders who have been fighting in front in these first races is very high and I think we will be the benchmarks this year, although you can't tell…”

And as he pointed out the most dangerous adversary on the grid, Huertas once again set his sights on the British Fusport driver - Rt Motorsports, who has added a win and two second places in the races held so far: “I would say it's Booth- Amos, who was already coming from Moto3 ™, has been in the championship for two years, has a lot of experience and is older than me, but I don't think this is an impediment to be able to challenge him for the title!”.

Precisely the fall of Booth-Amos in the last lap of Sunday's race allowed Huertas to rise to first place in the standings, seven points clear of the Englishman: "I think he pushed too hard there," says Huertas. “These are things that happen during the year. It can also happen to me; Not scoring is something you always count on and in Misano it was his turn. I left happy to have been able to finish and to be the leader, because there were many touches and it was a crazy race. My teammate Okaya fell in front of me and I had to practically stop the bike, and in the end, I finished tenth. These races are beautiful for the spectator, but tough for the rider… although in the end they are the ones that usually happen in WorldSSP300!”

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