BROMSGROVE Jake Clark has reached the reserve list for British Talent Cup 2018.

Having hardly caught breath from the Cadwell Park round of the Motostar British Championship the week before, Clark was off to Silverstone in Northamptonshire after being invited to the British Talent Cup selection event.

The British Talent Cup is a new Moto3 Championship that will start in 2018. It is organised by Dorna Sports the same people that run World Superbike and MotoGP, with the idea of finding and developing new young talent. There is already a similar championship in Asia and this year one began in Europe.

Just 90 riders were selected from over 200 applicants to attend the event. On the first day the riders were placed in a large room where they waited patiently for their names to be read out. The names were called out in groups of eight. They went out to a separate room to be briefed by Alberto Puig, who was a big influence on the MotoGP careers of Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner.

The riders spent about quarter of an hour being assessed on circuit before the next group went out. After all the riders had been out once the numbers were cut. From 90 to 70, the riders were back out being assessed once more. Then to 50 and then the final group of the day was just 33 riders.

Clark had managed to get to the final group. At the end of the final day the last 33 riders had to wait to see which 22 had been selected for the new championship, which could put their racing careers in the shop window for a future in MotoGP. One by one the names were read out.

Although Clark didn’t make the initial 22, he has made the reserve list made up of six other riders. Clark has only ridden a Moto3 machine in four rounds of the British Superbike Series so to come so close must have impressed the assessors.

The day after the selection process the young riders got to meet the current British MotoGP riders such as, Cal Crutchlow, Scott Redding, Sam Lowes and Bradley Smith. Later they were called up onto a huge stage for an event called ‘Day of Champions’, presented by Julian Ryder. Jeremy McWilliams, who is the talent scout for the series, also spoke to the crowd about the selection process.

Clark said: “I really enjoyed it. I was a bit nervous because I was in the first group out and I didn’t know what they were looking for. After each rotation of all the riders I was just waiting to hear my name called to go out again. There were a load of riders gone each time. I liked the pressure of it though. They wanted us to move to another level after the first session and I thought I have to push otherwise I’m going home. When they called out the 22 names I was a bit devastated having got so close, but then they read out the reserves and my name was on the list! I’m really excited for 2018.”