JACK SCOTT SET FOR SUPERBIKE RIDE WITH RAPID CDH Racing

Reigning British GP2 champion, Jack Scott, becomes the latest young rider to get a shot in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, as Rapid CDH Racing continues its mission to promote fresh talent to the biggest stage. We spoke Jack to the about his career and making the step up to superbike.

New recruit, reining GP2 Champion Jack Scott.

Jack Scott will become the next rider to graduate to the superbike class with the Rapid CDH Racing team, after signing for the team for 2023. He replaces Josh Owens, another former GP2 champion the team helped elevate to the superbike class, and he’ll partner Liam Delves, who made the leap from the superstock 600 class. It’s a trait the team prides itself on.

Unusually, it’s a deal that came together quite late in the day, with the paperwork only being signed in November.

“To be honest, I was talking to a couple of different teams, as you do,” Scott explained. “We were getting close to Christmas and I was still trying to get some other sponsors sorted, when Dean dropped me a message, and we just went from there.

“I wanted to go to superbike, ideally, and not supersport - having been in the class on the GP2 bike - or superstock 1000. Most of my career has been on race bikes, and not production-based bikes, so superbike felt like the right step. It’s obviously still based on a production bike but with a much stiffer chassis, slicks, electronics, that sort of thing.

“The last production bike I raced would have been my Aprilia superteen bike. After that it was a Moto3 bike and then the GP machine.”

Scott, like many, started racing on the dirt before transitioning to asphalt, riding field bikes, 65s, and 85s.

“My dad raced,” Scott recalled. “But he stopped young as he didn’t have the backing. But he was responsible for getting me into bikes. I was riding a PW50 at three, around the fields, and then I was on a 65 Suzuki followed by an 85 big wheel. I raced the Pro Nationals and did motocross until I was 13, but by then I wasn’t really enjoying it any more. Dad never pressured me, he was good and not a typical motocross dad like that, he was very supportive.

“I was at secondary school, playing rugby, actually, but I still wanted to race, so we decided to move to tarmac. It had never been the plan, necessarily, we were racing for fun as dad and lad. I tried a minimoto around eight but crashed loads and hated it, so carried on with motocross. But at around 13 I did the Ron Haslam school, got my licence, and, like most my age, did the superteen championship.”

Still racing for the fun of it at the time, thoughts of taking it more seriously starting to arrive after making the switch to Moto3.

“First year of Moto3 I was doing pretty well, and we were still just a dad and lad team. But we did well against some proper teams and got a ride with Ryan Saxleby. That made a huge difference; having people around that knew what they were doing, could set the bike up, and we finished second in the championship.”

Four years in the GP2 championship followed, though one of those years was a development year and another injury-affected. He finished second in 2020, however, and won it last year, in 2022. And now, a superbike ride beckons.

“I have ridden a litre bike before,” he told us when we asked about making the transition to the bigger, heavier, more powerful machine. “Obviously the stock bike is very different to the superbike but it’s still good to have that knowledge. They already make a lot of power in standard trim so at least I’m not going in blind.”

Now, the work begins to get comfortable and begin the process of adapting to the Kawasaki ZX-10R he’ll be racing in 2023.

“We’re going to try and get a UK shakedown in early, just to get comfortable, sort lever positions, seat position, that sort of thing. And then we’ll got to Spain for a test in March.

“I’m going to have to adjust my riding style, there’s obviously a lot of differences between the superbike and GP2 bike, and the power, of course. With the GP2 bike it’s all about corner speed and the superbike will be a lot more stop start, using the power. It’ll also be a lot more physical to ride, and with three races a weekend it’ll be tough to get used to.

“But I’m looking forward to it. It’s crazy as I’ll be racing against some of the best superbike riders in the world and people I watched race as a kid. It’ll be a learning year next year, and I’m not under any pressure, but obviously I’ve got my own goals. I want to get some points, and if we can break a top-10, I’ll be really happy.”