Binder in a hurry to race idol Rossi
JOHANNESBURG: When Brad Binder was five years old, he sat with his dad on their couch, cheering for Valentino Rossi. From there to sitting next to the Italian at a press conference was weird and strangely exciting for Binder, South Africa’s 2016 Moto3 World Champion.
The 21-year-old became the first South African to win a Moto3 world championship since Jon Ekerold in 1980.
Binder, who returned home yesterday, has moved up to Moto2 for the 2017 season. But he will first have to recover from a broken bone in his left arm suffered during a recent practice session in Valencia.
But Binder said he wasn’t complaining because if the accident had happened during the season, it would have been a disaster. So he is confident that he would be back on the track soon.
“Winning the Moto3 world championship made all the hard work worth it. Going into Moto2 next year, I definitely feel like I will be a lot more confident and knowing that I did well this year will make the step up definitely easier,” Binder said.
A turning point for the South African in the Moto3 campaign was the race in Spain in April, where he became the first rider since two-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez to win a race after starting at the back of the grid.
He went on to record five more wins and just needed to finish third in Aragon to be crowned world champion; he finished second and claimed the title.
“The biggest change I made this year was to stay relaxed and take it one day at a time,” Binder said.
“I tried to limit my mistakes and tried to be clever; when we didn’t win, it was important to try to make the podium.”
Now that he has a solid contract in hand, Binder said he could afford to learn new things in the first year of his Moto2 career.
His mother Sharon has become accustomed to watching her sons race, but said she never goes to the track to watch them as it’s too scary.
“When he falls, you just hope for the best as a parent,” she said. “I am terribly proud of him, it has taken a while for him to get here, but I am glad he is here at last.”
Binder said his KTM team had been honest with him, telling him that it would take at least six months for him to break into the Moto2 top-10.
“They keep telling me that it’s going to be tough, it’s not going to happen overnight. But I hope I get there faster than half a year,” he added.
He is also very proud of his younger brother Darryn, who’s also a racer. When Brad won his Moto3 race on Phillip Island in Australia, Darryn finished fourth.
“It was amazing to watch him race,” added Brad, who’s also positive South Africa has another future Moto3 champion in his brother.
Binder’s immediate goal is to win the Moto2 world championship while his long-term ambition would be to win the MotoGP title, ideally before Rossi retires.
That, he said, would be for the five-year-old kid who rooted for Rossi from his couch at home.