Young gun Cameron Dawson embracing next phase of career in British championship

The Dungannon rider won the British Junior Supersport title last season on the MSS Kawasaki 400 and will again ride for Nick Morgan’s outfit this year on a Kawasaki ZX636.

Dawson achieved his aim of winning the championship after finishing ninth in 2019 and improving to fourth in 2020, when he rode a KMR Kawasaki prepared by Irish road racing great Ryan Farquhar and backed by his father Ian.

The 17-year-old admitted he was unsure what to expect after teaming up with MSS Performance Kawasaki last year, but says he hit it off with Morgan from their first meeting.

“Everything just clicked for me and the biggest part of that was down to the team,” Dawson said.

“We made a change to Nick Morgan and MSS for 2021 and we didn’t know what it was going to be like.

“We obviously knew how good his bikes were because we raced against them in 2020, and the bike was very strong. But the first time we met up with Nick, straightaway everything just clicked and the craic was mighty as well.

“It’s just a great team to be around and there’s never a dull moment, everyone gets on well together and that is the most important thing.”

As the British Junior Supersport champion, Dawson is no longer eligible to remain in the series but he is now relishing the new challenge he now faces in the Superstock 600 class, which is a proven springboard to the British Supersport Championship.

“The top three in the Junior Supersport Championship automatically get moved out, so our next choice was to go into Superstock 600,” he said.

“The bike arrived the week of Christmas and it’s now getting prepared ahead of the test in Spain in March.

“I’m just hoping to learn the bike this year because we’re jumping onto a brand new bike for 2022 on the Kawasaki 636. I rode a 600 before in 2016, but there’s been a lot more development since then.

“If we come away with top tens then we’ll take that and try and keep progressing. I’ve got plenty of time because I’m only 18 this year, so we’ll just see how it goes.”

Dawson’s achievements last year earned him the coveted Young Rider of the Year trophy at the Adelaide Irish Motorbike Awards, but the Co Tyrone lad was denied the opportunity to receive the accolade under the lights when the event at Belfast’s Crowne Plaza Hotel had to be called off last month due to the ramifications of Covid-19.

Instead, he participated in a virtual awards ceremony streamed on the Bike Awards YouTube channel, but Dawson hopes he will have the chance to be among the award winners again in the not-too-distant future.

“We got the Young Rider of the Year award and that’s something I always wanted to win, because when you’re riding in England you’re not just racing against the English boys, there’s a lot of boys from over here as well,” he said.

“I was looking forward to having a night out at the awards in Belfast but then it was cancelled unfortunately because of Covid, so that was disappointing.

“But I was over the moon to win it and we did an interview for the virtual awards ceremony. Maybe I’ll have another chance – I’ll certainly give it good go!”

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