First win fuels confidence as Gawith chasing crown
Rising road racing star Brodie Gawith says he has added confidence after securing his first win of the Australian Superbike Championship season.
Currently sitting second in the leaderboards, Gawith has a chance to close the gap with the overall leader Brandon Demmery with the fourth race of the Supersport 300 season in Brisbane on Sunday.
Gawith, who is 25 points behind Demmery, said the win in round 3 gave him confidence going into the second half of the season.
“It was good to get the win, I started the season a bit slowly and am finding that I’m racing better now,” he said.
“I wouldn’t say there’s nerves going into the weekend, it’s more of an excitement, I know the course up in Brisbane so it’ll be good to get back up there and hopefully win again.
“I’m still a little bit behind first place, hopefully I can start to close that a bit.”
Gawith started his career on dirt bikes as a child, competing in local competitions before transitioning to road racing as a teenager.
Now the 17-year-old star is eyeing off a move to Europe or America as his career takes off.
He said the allure of an international contract was driving him to perform in the final three races of the Supersport 300 season.
“Hopefully I can get overseas next year, I want to race in the UK or America, through Europe, where it’s a lot bigger than it is here,” he said.
“If I can win the championship then obviously I’ll get some prize money from it but it’s really about the exposure to try to get myself overseas.
“There’s a lot more opportunities to race overseas for a fair bit more money, so hopefully I can finish the season strong and end up competing there.”
The Waurn Ponds local is a member of the Barwon Sports Academy, but often has to travel up to four hours to train on a track. He said he was lucky his family were fanatics for the sport.
“The closest track for me would probably be Phillip Island, it’s hard to get any practice on tracks when they’re so far away, there’s nothing really local in Geelong,” he said.
“My family got me into it, my dad loves the sport and he used to race a little bit as well, so it’s great to have him and his advice and tips.
“I started off in motocross, I did that when I was five and then moved across a few years ago.”