Three pivotal days for Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup hopefuls
The Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup Selection Event for the 2020 season is underway at the Guadix track in Spain with talented young riders looking to join those carrying on from this year.
Billy Van Eerde is one of the 11 riders that have automatically gained selection for 2020 off the back of their performances in the series this year. Van Eerde finished the season on a high with a win and a podium at the final round to finish sixth in 2019 and will be aiming for top spot in 2020.
Aiming to join him in the Red Bull Rookies ranks for 2020 are over 100 young hopefuls from 37 nations that will be put through the wringer this week as they compete for only 12 slots on the grid.
Three Aussie kids and a young New Zealander are aiming to bolster the ANZAC ranks amongst the Rookies with Angus Grenfell, Senna Agius and Cros Francis joined by young Kiwi Cormac Buchanan at the selection event.
The first half of the huge Selection Event field starts on day one with seven groups riding around the Guadix track in seven groups on identical PreMoto3 250cc machines with each group of 8 riders riding for 15 minutes in front of four experienced judges.
The afternoon session gives the youngsters another opportunity and, at the end of the day, the Selection Committee draws up a list of riders to be invited back for Day 3. The second day repeats the format for the second half of the riders.
The last day sees the remaining riders out to impress the judges again, with the final choice made that afternoon concerning who is invited to join the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup for 2020.
This was the route taken by World Champions including Brad Binder and Joan Mir who, along with other ex-Rookies, are heading toward achieving 100 GP victories.
South African Binder raced in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup for three years before graduating to the Moto3 World Championship which he won in 2016. Stepping up to Moto2 for two strong, GP winning seasons, he now graduates to MotoGP with Tech 3 KTM for the 2020 season alongside another ex Rookie, Miguel Oliveira.
2020 Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup qualified riders
1. Phillip Tonn (GER)
2. Alex Escrig (SPA)
3. Matteo Bertelle (ITA)
4. Billy van Eerde (AUS)
5. Mario Aji (IDN)
6. Pedro Acosta (SPA)
7. David Salvador (SPA)
8. Gabin Planques (FRA)
9. Zonta van den Goorbergh (NED)
10. Artem Maraev (RUS)
11. Marcos Uriarte (SPA)
Selection Event Entry List
Angus Grenfell (Australia)
Senna Agius (Australia)
Cros Francis (Australia)
Cormac Buchanan (New Zealand)
Tomás Acevedo (Argentina)
Fermín Aldeguer Mengual (Spain)
Boudin Alexis (France)
Oscar Almonacil (Spain)
David Alonso (Colombia)
Raquel Ananda Nogueira Vaz (Brazil)
Facundo Andrés Llambias Rosas (Uruguay)
Felipe Arredondo (Colombia)
Julen Ávila Cortes (Spain)
Levi Badie (Belgium)
Cristian Basso (Italy)
Pedro Enrique Benito Fraga (Spain)
Dean Berta Viñales (Spain)
Dinis Borges (Portugal)
Franco Reub Bourne (Great Britain)
Michal Búlik (Slovakia)
Unai Calatayud Pascual (Spain)
Maxime Cappelle (France)
Ido Chen (Israel)
Torin Collins (Canada)
Davide Conte (Italy)
Rafael Damásio (Portugal)
Adon Davie (Great Britain)
Bryan-Kim Dupasquier (Switzerland)
Fazlı Ercelik (Turkey)
Jorke Erwig (Germany)
Vincent Falcone (France)
Mattia Falzone (Italy)
Filippo Farioli (Italy)
Adrian Fernandez Gonzalez (Spain)
Tetsuya Fujita (Japan)
Leungo Gaorekwe (South Africa)
Drew Gates (South Africa)
George Gerakianakis (Greece)
Clément Giabbani (France)
Sergio Gómez-Caro López-Hermoso (Spain)
Soma Görbe (Hungary)
Luca Göttlicher (Germany)
Izan Guevara Bonnin (Spain)
Aryan Gurav (India)
Jack Hart (Great Britain)
Daniel Holgado Miralles (Spain)
Jacopo Adriano Hosciuc (Romania)
Muhammad Izam Ikmal (Malaysia)
Gábor Bence Kecskés (Hungary)
Toby Khamsouk (United States)
Lenni Klemetti (Finland)
Andreas Kofler (Austria)
Maksym Kovalov (Ukraine)
Aditi Krishnan (India)
Raphael Kuberesky Ramos (Brazil)
Rocco Landers (United States)
Caique Lanna de Menezes (Brazil)
Lennox Lehmann (Germany)
Alfonso Gustavo Linares Ochoa (Venezuela)
Linus Lundin (Denmark)
Luca Lunetta (Italy)
Jamie Lyons (Ireland)
Ross Maguire (Great Britain)
Humberto Cezar Maier Neto (Brazil)
Kiko Maria (Portugal)
Juan Andres Marin Arango (Colombia)
Valentina Martinez Trujillo (Colombia)
Gabriele Mastroluca (Italy)
Mario Mayor Francés (Spain)
Mateo Jesús Mayorga Salazar (Argentina)
Ido Menaged (Israel)
Alex Millan Gomez (Spain)
Facundo Martin Mora Allis (Argentina)
Guillermo Marcel Moreno Crail (Mexico)
Alessandro Morosi (Italy)
Max Muckle (Germany)
Daniel Muñoz Fernandez (Spain)
David Muñoz Rodríguez (Spain)
Scott Ogden (Great Britain)
Barnabas Olah (Hungary)
Unai Orradre Abad (Spain)
Ivan Ortolá Díez (Spain)
Milan Pawelec (Poland)
Victor Pérez de León Fermann (Mexico)
Ioannis-Konstantinos Peristeras (Greece)
Bartholomé Perrin (France)
João Pedro Pires Campos Arratia (Brazil)
Mattia Rato (Italy)
David Real Perez (Spain)
Maxim Repák (Slovakia)
Oriol Rodriguez Vives (Spain)
Nick Roelfsema (Netherlands)
Marcos Rol Alvarez (Spain)
Elie Rousselot (France)
Marcos Ruda (Spain)
Galip Satici (Turkey)
Errol Sullivan (United States)
Angelo Tagliarini (Switzerland)
Jesús Torres Cabrera (Spain)
Maxwell Toth (United States)
Blai Trias Molas (Spain)
Enzo Valentim Garcia (Brazil)
Ilya Vasilevsky (Russia)
Collin Veijer (Netherlands)
Bastiaan Visser (Netherlands)
Ondrej Vostatek (Czech Republic)
Noel Willemsen (Germany)
Chris Wright (South Africa)
Štěpán Zuda (Czech Republic)
Source: MCNews.com.au