Haydn Fordyce Definitely A Young Man In A Hurry

DECEMBER 11, 2024: With unbridled dedication and determination that knows no bounds, Auckland teenager Haydn Fordyce has set a career pathway for himself that will possibly take him to the pinnacle in his chosen sport of motorcycle road-racing.

The tall 16-year-old from Patumahoe, near Pukekohe, has just left school at King’s College in Auckland and has set his sights on a fulltime career racing bikes internationally.

Fordyce obviously has high hopes and even greater expectations and his confidence in not misplaced either, with the young man recently turning heads on a regular basis both in New Zealand and overseas as well.

His father, James Fordyce, is naturally his biggest supporter and proud to fill in a few key details about his obviously talented son.

“He’s just finished the New Zealand off-season racing in the Asia-Pacific Cup, doing very well as he won several races and won some rounds of the competition, but we had a few bike failures, a crash and he didn’t have a good round in Japan either, so that hampered his campaign,” said James Fordyce. “He ended up fifth overall, although at one stage in the series he was second.

“He’d previously raced the Asia-Pacific championship in Australia in the 150cc class in 2023 and finished third overall in that. He won eight out of 11 races in the Auckland Motorcycle Club Championships, breaking the Hampton Downs lap record in the process.

“Haydn took pole position in every single race at AMCC championship. He also did lap after lap well under the previous lap record. More often than not, he was around two seconds a lap faster than anyone else on every lap. Haydn almost didn’t have to do the last round and still win the AMCC series.

“We were hoping to move to Spain and do the 300cc Moto3 world series, but Haydn has decided, because of his size and the small bikes he’d be racing, that it’d be better to go down the pathway that leads instead to the World Superbike Championships (WSBK).

“So, in 2025 he wants to race a season in the Australian Superbike Championships (ASBK), riding in the Supersport 600 class, just as a stepping stone. We still have a few things to sort out to get him a bike and see if we can actually afford such a campaign, but that’s the plan anyway. The following year we hope to have him racing in the British Superbike Championships (BSB).”

Haydn Fordyce kicked off his 2024-25 New Zealand season racing at round one of the Suzuki International Series in Taupo at the weekend just gone.

Riding an unfamiliar 600cc Yamaha in the Formula Two class, Fordyce manged to score three seventh placings against his vastly more experienced rivals at Taupo, including Kiwi international Jake Lewis, from Christchurch, and Whanganui rising star Luca Durning.

Fordyce even finished two places better overall than visiting German star Wolfgang Schuster, the 37-year-old from Stuttgart who has had experience racing near the front of the fields at the Isle of Man TT races, the Ulster GP and in the German, Dutch and Czech championships.

“I think every racer’s ultimate goal is to become a world champion,” said Haydn Fordyce.

“I want to do something on the 600cc bike in Australia. That would be nice. And then head to Europe. I guess I’m dreaming big and hoping for the best and just putting everything into it.

“It was good racing the 300cc bike in the Auckland champs and I felt at home on that bike and on that track, but now I’m on a different bike and was on a different track at Taupo. But it’s all part of the learning curve.

“The 600cc bike is a lot faster, of course, and you have to think a little differently. Everything is coming at you a lot faster on the bigger bike. I have given myself a few frights. The rear end lights up a lot easier and threatens to throw me out of the saddle,” he smiled.

Whatever happens for Fordyce in the coming few years, he is chasing a dream and, at the rate he is going, fingers are crossed that he could be capturing that dream in no time at all.

Meanwhile, the popular annual three-round Suzuki International Series, including the world-renowned Cemetery Circuit street race event in Whanganui on Boxing Day, kicked off this busiest time of the year for New Zealand's elite motorcycle road-racers and round two follows swiftly on at Manfeild, on the outskirts of Feilding, this coming weekend.

Credit: Words by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

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