The young Canadian rider has been signed on to replace the injured Aaron Yates after a favourable test at Infineon last week, and stellar performances in the first two rounds of the 2010 AMA season at Daytona and Fontana.

Photo: Philippe Champoux/Moto123.com

Jake Zemke, the current AMA Superbike point leader, also rides a Jordan Superbike, so the GSX-R1000 machines are top level, giving McCormick a real chance at showing off his talent. He will run in four Superbike races over the two rounds, enough seat time to discover how AMA-level superbikes work when you ride at a front-running pace at this level of competition. We can expect him to improve as he leaps up the learning curve, culminating with a return to Infineon where he “earned” the ride last weekend.

McCormick is naturally thrilled with this development. “The bike is 12kg lighter than the Suzuki 1000s I rode in Canada in 2009 and that helped me feel at home and adapt to the extra performance more easily”. After turning within 1sec of Zemke on his first day on a bike and a track he did not know, the team was happy enough with this performance to sign up the rookie to the two-weekend deal. “There are a lot more adjustments you can make on these bikes, and that is where I concentrated. We kept going quicker and quicker as I learned the track and how the bike worked.” Now it is back to the training regimen at home for a week or so, and then on to Road Atlanta on April 16 to 18.

With the skills and the physique necessary to tame these almost violent bikes, we can expect big things from the Kid from Saskatchewan over this and the coming seasons.

For more details on how Brett got this ride, go to: http://www.cdnsuperbike.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2063&Itemid=46 .