The FIM Sportbike World Championship’s Carter Thompson (Team BrCorse) capped off an impressive late-season comeback to finish third place in the category’s maiden campaign. The field’s sole Australian rider struggled early in his adaptation to the Yamaha R7 machine, but a tremendous step in single-lap and race pace saw him take five podiums over the final five rounds, including a win in each of the campaign’s final weekends. Most recently, in the season’s final Pirelli Spanish Round, the #50 landed P6 despite penalisation, and atop the podium in Race 2 at the Circuito de Jerez - Angel Nieto, Andalucia.
EARLY STRUGGLES IN 2026
In 2025, Thompson took part in the final World Supersport 300 campaign atop a Kawasaki Ninja 400. He similarly found his footing late in the campaign for a runner-up finish, and 2026 brought a fresh challenge in the first season of the WorldSPB category atop a brand new 2026 Yamaha R7 bike. His first three rounds brought growing pains for the young Aussie, as the team sorted out the new machine’s gremlins. While he finished each of the first four races in the points, his first top ten finally came in the final race of Round 2 at Assen with a P9. Round 3 at Most featured his first top-five finish with a Race 2 fifth place, but a Race 1 crash where he got tangled up in a multi-rider crash including teammate Marco Gaggi, Juan Risueno (Pons Motosport Italika Racing) and Harrison Dessoy (PHR Performance Triumph) largely offset the points gain from his P5 result, leaving him in ninth in the Riders’ Championship.
TURNAROUND AT ARAGON
As WorldSPB arrived at MotorLand Aragon for the fourth round of the eight-round season, Thompson pulled into the paddock at Aragon with wind in his sails, having won the second of his three WorldSSP300 wins there last season. He came out firing on all cylinders once again at the Spanish venue once again, bagging his maiden podium in P2, setting off a tremendous upswing in results. He took a podium double in the subsequent round at Misano, another P2 at Magny-Cours, a maiden pole and race win in the category at Cremona, arriving at Jerez in third place in the standings, having stood on the podium in every round since the Championship’s trip to Alcaniz.
CONTROVERSY IN RACE 1
Starting the Jerez weekend with his second first row of the campaign in P2, Thompson was battling for the podium positions on Lap 9 when he got on the brakes a touch late into Turn 13, getting out of shape and making contact with the inside of then Championship leader David Salvador (Team ProDina Kawasaki XCI), sending the Spaniard sprawling out of the contest. The #50 was penalised for irresponsible riding by the FIM WorldSBK Stewards with a Long Lap Penalty, which he took on the penultimate lap. He finished in sixth.
“WHEN WE HIT CLEAN AIR, I PUSHED HARD”
Setting off from P5, Race 2 saw the Australian shine in his final race of the season. He sat in P5 at the close of the opening lap, snagging third place on Lap 2, yet his margin to P1 was already up to eight tenths. Salvador fought title rival Xavi Artigas (MTM Kawasaki), who had benefited from the Race 1 incident to lead the title by 13 points in P1 and P2; as the Spaniards sparred, Thompson set the fastest lap of the race on Lap 3. A 1’46.716s time which closed the gap from the fight for P1 to just over a tenth, before clearing the pair on Lap 4, sailing clear from there to a relatively stress-free finale, just over four and a half seconds faster than the rest of the field.
On the final race at Jerez as well as recounting his 2026 season as a whole, Thompson said: “It was a very nice race; it was a bit of a struggle with the weather conditions, the drops of rain and the white flag in the first laps. I’m really happy with Race 2; we just struggled for grip. When we hit clean air, I pushed hard. It’s great to finish third in the Championship considering where we were at the start of the year; I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me. I can’t thank the team and Yamaha enough for all the hard work they put in on the bike. We’ve come a long way.”
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