MOTORSPORT –
The 2021 Moto2 World Championships were concluded in Valencia on November 14 and won by Australian, Remy Gardner, making good on training in his youth with the Central Coast Junior Motor Cycle Club.
Son of multiple World Champion winning motorcyclist, Wayne Gardner, the 23-year-old is following his father’s example with his recent second-tier competition win and his subsequent admission into the top-level, Moto Grand Prix (GP).
The Moto2 Series ran across 18 events from March to November held in locations across Europe, the Middle East and USA.
Heading into the final Valencian event from November 12-14, the contest was particularly close between Gardner and Spanish road racer, Raúl Fernández.
Although Fernández went on to win the three days of racing and score an overall Series total of 307 points, a 10th place finish for Gardner was just enough to earn six points and trickle ahead with 311 overall.
The Aussie was able achieve this despite breaking two of his ribs on the initial day of racing, fighting through the pain for the two remaining days and then finishing high enough for his overall score to turn good.
As a junior, Remy was an active member of the local Motor Cycle Club who are based at the long track broad circuit on Debenham Road North, Somersby.
Club President, David Smith, said he remembers well the time Remy and the Gardner family spent on the Central Coast track, noting a drive in Wayne’s son to succeed from a young age.
“Remy was very determined to do the best at whatever he did and he’s done it, so we’re all very proud of what he’s done,” Smith said.
“Especially being under the weight of his father’s name, he stood in his own shoes the whole way through this, Remy has always been Remy.
“As a young kid he was determined that whatever he did, he did it with 100 per cent and achieved his goals – he always did everything he possibly could to be good at what he did.
“Whatever Remy’s dad told him, he would try it, his style has been taught by his father, the style that he had, it was something to be admired.”
Here, Remy trained as a dirt track motorcyclist, learning skills transferable to moto and speedway racing – previous MotoGP and Speedway World Champions, Casey Stoner and Chris Holder have received a familiar service, too.
For Remy, despite still repairing from his rib injury, preparations for the 2022 MotoGP have already begun with his first test run completed at Circuito de Jerez in Southern Spain.
Three more tests will run in the first two months of next year before the commencement of an upgraded season of 21 rounds across the world from March to November.
For Round 19, the Series will make a stop at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, Victoria, October 16.
CCC