Knockhill’s Bennetts British Superbike meeting not only heralded one of the hottest weeks, temperature-wise, in Scottish history it also confirmed a 19-year old with the potential to be the superstar that British racing badly needs.

Two second places and a fastest lap in only his second weekend on a Superbike made Rory Skinner not only the talk of the paddock but the racing world.

Was this a flash in the pan? Not according to someone who has been there before. James Whitham, now commentator and pundit for Eurosport and BSN, wondered why we were surprised:

“He’s only just popped up onto a lot of people’s radar but actually people in the trade have known him for a year or two now. And we’ve always known he has got the potential but the big thing is when you jump off one bike and get onto another that has twice the power he has made his talent work on that. That is the amazing thing that happened at Knockhill.

“Who is this kid? Well we know who he is and what he can do on a Supersport bike or Moto 3 bike. The amazing thing is how he has got that Superbike to work for him and looking like he can put it exactly where he wants and when he wants in that depth and quality of field on only his second meeting with it. That’s the astounding thing.

“And when you ask about potential you mean MotoGP? Yes, I think he has and the thing is he is young enough - 19 years old - which is the biggest factor at the moment. He is young and he is as good as he is.

‘But you don’t stay young in this job for a long time and if you’re going to be MotoGP material he needs to be moving on and not stagnating. If MotoGP is his dream, and why not, I know that Dorna would love to get a Brit into MotoGP and I would guess they would be open to helping him.

“But he doesn’t need to win every race in BSB and risk crashing to do that. A good performance in his first year would be enough to impress.”

Those wise words are entirely in tune with Rory and his dad Mike who has spent the last few years scraping money together to get his son a ride alongside help in the early days from friends, the now defunct Racing Steps Foundation and latterly Chris Walker, Robin Appleyard and other supporters. But how did it all begin?

Enter father Mike, ex-racer and one time Scottish champion: “We were on holiday in a motor home in the south of France and next to us was a little German kid with a little balance bike. I couldn’t believe what this kid was doing and I thought this is the thing for Rory although he was only 16 months at the time.

“So when we got back we got him one and it took him only two weeks to get his balance and he was flying about the house in no time. It was at that point that I thought he had something.

A few months later I was looking at a bike shop and managed to get him a little PW50 which had actually been stolen from the shop but the police got it back. So, I did a deal with my boss at the time, bought it and stuck it in the back of the garage at home thinking it would do for him when he was three or four. But a few months later he spotted it.”

What followed was teaching him to ride, firstly with stabilisers which were soon found unnecessary nuisance and at six years old he was off to the races at first in mini-motor at Kirkcaldy which went so well that Santa brought him his own little motorbike for Christmas.

The rest is history starting with a victory in his first mini-moto race and then the Scottish championship coinciding with his father becoming Scottish champion on 400s. This was followed by winning British mini moto championships for two years on the trot. By that time he was a big fan of motor cycle racing with heroes such as Nicky Hayden and, inevitably, Valentino Rossi. Plus, of course, his dad.

He was starting to get noticed as he advanced with great success into other classes and by the age of 13 he had done enough to be the only British rider to be selected for the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup for 2015 followed by the FIM CEV Moto3 Junior World Championship.

The closure of Racing Steps him without a ride for 2018 but he was offered a place by Dorna in the inaugural British Talent Cup series which concluded with him winning the championship in the final round at Valencia. However, delight turned to disappointment when their hopes of some reward like a place in Moto3 for the following season just didn’t happen. Was it politics, was it favouritism?

“It was money,” declared Mike. “Even if they had just come and said ‘Well done.’ They never said anything. Not a word. It was a disappointment.”

Unable to raise the sort of money required, something in the region of quarter of a million, to buy into either Motor3 or Moto2 they were forced to return to the UK and the British Supersport Championship. Helped by a lot of friends, business associates, an online fundraising organisation called Go Fund Me and, in particular, Chris Walker who provided a second bike for them allowed them to do enough to impress Robin Appleyard.

It did not come for nothing but his professionalism and the Yamahas gave Rory the tools to do the job winning the first six races and the championship with two races in hand.

“We’ve got some very loyal personal sponsors who have supported me over the years and when I went to them with this proposal, the pedigree of the team etc. they were happy to help,” said the youngster.

”To be honest I think you will find few if any teams below British Superbikes where the rider will get paid to ride the bike. Every rider will be paying the team to ride the bike and depending on their personal sponsors to live on.”

His domination of the Supersport Championship and his intention to move into Superbikes led to a dramatic change. Teams were now chasing him and the winner was FS-3 Kawasaki but even after after successful test sessions and the first meeting at Oulton Park where he easily achieved his target of being in the top ten his
performance at Knockhill surprised him as much as the crowd.

“It definitely did. To be in the points in the leg and finish in the top six was awesome to me. I try to set myself realistic targets and to be in the top ten is great but to be in the top five is amazing and I certainly didn’t think I was going to be on the podium in the second round.

There may not be a third round for him as he suffered severe arm pump at Knockhill, a not unusual complaint for Superbike riders, and had an operation at the end of last week which may rule him out of Brands Hatch. “I will be doing everything I possibly can to be there but I will not know until Friday morning whether the arm, the right arm, is strong enough or not. If the arm is not right I will not take the risk because I would rather miss one meeting than risk the season,” he disclosed.

A Superbike is a totally different bike to anything I have ridden.I have been working really well with the team, with my crew chief Matt Llewellyn and the rest of the guys at FS-3 have been really great with me. No pressure. I’ve put a bit of my Supersport style into it but I’m learning something every time I go out. It’s totally different but I’m really enjoying it.”

His father believes that being and racing in Spain since the age of 13 has taught him an immense amount. He’s been around a lot and has a huge network of people which cannot be other than beneficial to him achieving his great goal - MotoGP.

He said: “My goal has always been MotoGP. World Superbikes is a championship but at the end of the day MotoGP is the pinnacle of road racing, it’s where all the prototype bikes are where the technology and future is. So, I want to be back in that paddock.

“I know it’s a long and tough road to get there but I’ve got some good people on my side and some good people speaking to the right people. But it’s BSB at the minute and I’ll take it race by race. I’m not going to look too far into the future but everything I’m doing has an end game and that is Grand Prix.”