HondA and the British Talent Cup 

The British Talent Cup is a series designed to identify and showcase talented young riders, and it's open to entrants between 12 and 17 years old who want to become the next generation of MotoGP contenders. The series started in 2018 and has proved so successful that it's now about to enter a new expanded era of competition. 

The age group and technical regulations of the BTC mirror those of the already extremely successful European Talent Cup, which like the BTC, is also promoted by Dorna – the promoter and commercial rights holder of MotoGP. The British Talent Cup is part of Dorna's Dorna's Road to MotoGP program, and it will now become the sole British Moto3 Championship class in 2020 with a ten-round, twenty-race Championship. 

Backing and enthusiasm for the BTC from Dorna and the Bennetts British Superbike Championship is now so strong that the event has been secured this year, next year and the 2022 season. 

We spoke to Stuart Higgs, Series and Race Director of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, about the British Talent Cup and finally getting things underway after the coronavirus delay.  

When it comes to the importance of the BTC, Stuart is clear: "It's probably the single biggest motorcycle racing youth development and scouting series that the domestic scene has ever seen," he told us. 

Nothing like it has really existed for far too long, and we probably have to go back to the late 1970s and early 1980s to the Reference Series to think of anything even remotely comparable. 

The BTC aims to bridge the gap between Britain's well developed domestic racing scene for juniors and the very highest echelons of racing. In its first couple of years, the BTC followed a similar "X-Factor" system for admission that's used elsewhere in the world, which here in Britain was a selection event held at Silverstone before the British GP.  

According to Stuart, what Britain has been lacking until now has been a structured was for rider to graduate from the domestic youth championships to MotoGP, and the BTC will now fill that role in its new expanded format. 

Stuart explained: "In the UK we have perhaps the most mature and well established national championship anywhere in the world, but what we don’t have is perhaps the discipline, structure and direct connection to get into world championship level." 

BTC is designed to rectify the existing situation that isn't seen as ideal for young British riders hoping to make it to the elite level. What's been happening until now is that young riders have felt it necessary to give up on the domestic scene entirely and go straight to Spain at school age to get the best chance of progressing.  

"That's recognised as being quite disruptive to the kids' academic lives, it means massive upheaval for a family and significant expenditure," Stuart admits.  

Stuart is convinced that the way the BTC is structured from this year going forward is a big step forward, and the way Dorna will now be concentrating its efforts on what it does best will be a huge boost to the whole event and for British motorcycle racing in general. 

"The involvement of Dorna as the global MotoGP organiser will now be for them to use all their expertise in their talent promotions departments, which have done a fabulous job around the world of finding new riders and bringing them through their various championship structures into the world championship. It allows them not to have now, as they did in the two previous years, the responsibility and huge financial and organisational burden of running the whole championship." 

For the first two years of the BTC, Dorna was completely responsible for providing all the bikes, all the mechanics and the infrastructure, which Stuart says was "a massive, massive undertaking." From now onwards, the BTC becomes a regular championship where the riders and teams are self-funding, and this is perhaps where the decision for all the bikes to be identical becomes most crucial.