Chris Clark Shines On WorldSSP300 Debut In Spain

American teenager Chris Clark became the youngest American rider to qualify and race in a European round of the FIM Supersport World Championship this past weekend at the Motorland Aragon circuit in Spain.

Sixteen-year-old Clark who has been successfully competing in the MotoAmerica Junior Cup series this year was handed the opportunity to make his debut on the world stage by Jakub Smrz – former GP and World Superbike front runner – who now runs the Accolade Smrz Kawasaki team in WorldSSP300.

The team, that currently sits second in the overall world championship standings we’re impressed by Chris’s ability to not only learn the track and tyres but also adapt to both a new bike and a new way of riding.

Easily qualifying, Chris finished a more than respectable twenty-fourth in Saturday’s race which was cut short and restarted after a multi rider incident. Chris unfortunately crashed in Sunday’s race after making another significant step in morning warm up.

He will now remain in Europe and travel to the season finale of the world championship at the “rollercoaster” – Portimão in Portugal this coming weekend.

Chris Clark:

“I’m really happy with how my first world championship weekend went. Before I came to Spain, I didn’t know the track, the bike, the tyres, but I overcame it all and made some really good progress throughout the weekend. I qualified twenty-ninth in superpole and made up some places in the race which was awesome. I had a good warm up and made more improvements but sadly I crashed out on the first lap of race two. The team are great, and I cannot thank Jakub Smrz enough for the opportunity. I can’t wait for Portimão in a few days!”