Laois rider scores Moto3 Championship points on debut double-header

Laois teenager Casey O’Gorman marked a major milestone in his career last weekend when he secured his first-ever points in the Moto3 World Championship.

The 18-year-old, riding for Italian team Sic58 Squadra Corse, finished 13th in the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday to collect three Championship points in only his second race at this level. O’Gorman had started from 18th on the grid and fought his way into the points-paying positions with a composed and determined ride.

It was a fitting achievement for the Portlaoise-born rider. His father, John O’Gorman, originally from Mountrath, was a motorcycle club racer and mechanic before moving to London in the early 1990s, where he later returned to the track

He had only made his Moto3 debut a week earlier at the Austrian Grand Prix. Sic58 Squadra Corse drafted him in after regular rider Luca Lunetta suffered an injury. On the day of his 18th birthday, the team announced that Laois' O’Gorman would ride at both the Austrian and Hungarian Grands Prix, a call-up the teenager grasped with both hands.

With his two-race stint in Moto3 now complete, O’Gorman will return to the FIM JuniorGP World Championship, where he currently sits third in the overall standings. He has finished second in his last three races and will be back in action on September 21 at Misano in Italy, with six rounds remaining in the 12-race campaign.

O’Gorman’s rise through the ranks has been rapid. In 2021, he won the British Talent Cup, claiming seven race wins and clinching the title in a dramatic season finale at Donington Park. That success earned him a spot in the prestigious Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup, where he competed in both 2022 and 2023. He placed eighth overall in both seasons, securing runner-up finishes at the Algarve International Circuit in 2022 and Mugello in 2023.

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