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Aussies Abroad May 2026 | With many Australians showcasing their skills abroad in a range of disciplines both on-track and off-road, our latest column focuses on how they’re faring battling it out with the best in their chosen classes.
On-Track
Jack Miller – MotoGP
Despite a tough Sprint at Le Mans to open his May, Jack Miller delivered a far stronger showing in Sunday’s race, bringing home P15 and a valuable championship point even though the soft tyre didn’t work out as planned. While the Prima Pramac Yamaha hotshot knows there’s still plenty of progress to unlock with the bike, he remains committed to pushing hard and building competitiveness step by step.
“We decided to go with the soft front tyre because we expected the temperature to be slightly cooler. Even on the sighting lap to the grid there was quite a strong wind, and the radar suggested there could be more cloud cover coming, so we took a gamble with the soft front. I knew it was going to be difficult in the group, but historically I‘ve usually been able to manage the soft front quite well with my riding style. Unfortunately, with around fifteen laps to go I really started struggling a lot with it, and in the end it wasn‘t the right choice for today,” Miller insisted.
Pic: Jack Miller FB
Miller’s focus then switched to Catalunya, where he earned a direct spot in Q2 with a ninth‑place qualifying effort. However, he couldn’t convert that speed into race results, for he finished 16th in the Sprint before a tyre‑pressure penalty left him 15th and again collecting a single point. With grip issues, tyre life being hard to control and the layout offering him no favours, a weekend that started full of hope sadly fell short of expectations.
“It was one of those days. In the first part of the race I actually felt quite good, and we were being pretty conservative with the tyre management. I could see the riders around me starting to struggle a little more while we still had decent pace. After the first restart we changed strategy because I wasn‘t fully comfortable with the rear tyre feeling, and for the final start we went with the medium rear. In the end we were probably too conservative for what effectively became a shorter race. The track conditions improved a lot, and we simply lacked acceleration on corner exit compared to the others. The biggest issue remains that when you pick the bike up and open the throttle, we are still losing too much drive on the exits. That makes it very difficult to attack or defend positions during the race,” lamented Miller.
Senna Agius – Moto2
Senna Agius produced a polished ride at Le Mans to begin his month, as he sliced through the pack to claim P7 after an authoritative opening lap that saw him gain several positions. Heavy contact soon after broke his rhythm and cost him any chance of staying with the lead group, but the Aussie regrouped well to secure some crucial points.
“I’m satisfied because it wasn’t a bad race. I was very aggressive at the start and made up a few positions. But there were some heavy contacts on the first lap, which is why we lost touch with the leading group and couldn’t fight for the podium. Still, I worked my way back up to seventh place, which is a good result and marks a strong comeback,” explained Agius.
Agius’ attention quickly swung to Catalunya as he launched from row four and battled through to clinch 10th, even as a rear‑tyre problem in the final laps slowed his charge. To his credit, he persisted, showing excellent maturity and composure to see out the bout and record some vital points.
“I had a really good start; I couldn’t have been doing much better in the opening laps, and I settled into the group well. I wasn’t pushing, but rather trying to stay calm on the bike and not stress the tyres. When I got into seventh or sixth position, something strange happened with the rear tyre from one lap to the next. It wasn’t a gradual drop-off, and it wasn’t something we had not spotted during practices. I was definitely riding smoothly, and it’s not easy to take, as I didn’t do anything wrong in the first part of the race. A top 10 finish on a bad day like this is alright,” he reflected.
Joel Kelso – Moto3
Joel Kelso’s weekend promised far more than it delivered, with the Australian securing his first front‑row start on the Honda at Le Mans and looking primed for an uplifting outcome. Unfortunately, tricky conditions caught him out, and a front‑end loss ended his race before he could capitalise on that qualifying speed.
Pic: Joel Kelso Racing FB
“What could have been. I managed to get away well in the rain and felt comfortable in P4. We were building into the race lap by lap until the front suddenly washed away with no warning. A real disappointment. But we were strong in all conditions this weekend, and we took a major step forward,” he posted. “Massive thank you to my whole team for all the hard work during these first couple of rounds. It hasn’t been easy, but we are making progress.”
At the next round, Kelso ignited his Catalan GP with a solid P8 in qualifying and again appeared well situated for a competitive showing. But ongoing struggles with the bike limited his impact on race day, leaving him to salvage 18th as the best result possible.
Remy Gardner – World Superbike
Remy Gardner’s opening race at Balaton Park was one to move on from. After qualifying 14th in Superpole, a penalty pushed him back to 17th on the grid even though he fought hard early and showed decent pace, only for fading grip in the closing laps to drop him to 16th at the flag.
He regrouped well for the shortened Superpole race, for he climbed to 11th and only just missed a third‑row start. From P12 off the line for race two, Gardner put in his strongest ride of the weekend, as he settled into a consistent pattern and motored into the top 10. He held firm to finish ninth, which represented a clear step forward to close out the round.
“Overall, it was a positive end to the weekend. We made some solid improvements from yesterday, and we need to focus on the positives. In the Superpole race, we were close to the top nine, which would have helped for race two, but it wasn’t a bad result. In race two, I was able to maintain a good pace until the end, which is encouraging, and finishing ninth shows good progress considering where we started. We’ll aim to carry this momentum into Most with confidence, as it’s a track where we’ve performed well in the past,” Gardner told the Yamaha website.
Pic: Remy Gardner FB
Gardner endured a tougher bout at Most after a disrupted FP3 left him without a proper flying lap heading into Superpole. He qualified 18th and then couldn’t find the grip he needed in race one but kept a steady rhythm and toiled throughout to cross the line in 15th in the challenging conditions.
Gardner concluded the weekend positively with two comeback rides. Approaching the Superpole race with confidence, Gardner propelled himself from 18th to 12th, showing terrific speed across the 10‑lap sprint. In race two, he made a tidy start and found his groove to surge his way forward again to finish 14th. It wasn’t an easy day from his grid positions, but Gardner maximised what he could and signed off from the Czech Republic with another decent outing.
“It’s been a better day overall, and we definitely made improvements compared to yesterday. Unfortunately, starting so far back on the grid made recovery very difficult, and we weren’t able to fight further forward. Still, we can take confidence from the progress we made and continue building momentum for the next races,” said the #87.
Oli Bayliss – World Supersport
Oli Bayliss’ first day at Balaton Park took an early hit when he crashed at turn five on lap two, but he remounted and pushed on. The team then made a strategic call to pit him on lap 10 for fresh rubber, as they targeted one of the nine fastest laps to improve his race two grid spot. Bayliss duly delivered, clocking a 1 ‘42.970 that slotted him into seventh on the grid despite finishing P26 in race one.
Bayliss’ Sunday ended before it began after a heavy high‑side in morning warm‑up brought out the red flag. He was assessed at the medical centre and initially seemed okay, but swelling in his elbow worsened, and he was later declared unfit to start the second stanza. A tough end to a weekend that had promised plenty.
“Not the best weekend here in Balaton. We had a small problem during this morning’s warm-up, and it resulted in a big crash. It doesn’t really feel too good, in a bit of pain, but for sure we will be fine. Time to reset, we had the pace this weekend, but hopefully in Most we can bring it home,” Bayliss recalled.
The PTR Triumph ace then bounced back by producing a classy opening race at Most, bringing it home in sixth after a measured ride. The Australian had qualified fourth and, although he relinquished a few spots early, admirably settled into a solid rhythm and stayed with the lead group to secure a fantastic result.
Pic: Oli Bayliss FB
Bayliss then proceeded to cap off a dramatic second race at Most with a brilliant podium finish. Starting seventh, he held his own inside the top five while the battle ahead intensified. When late‑race chaos struck on the final lap, Bayliss’ consistency paid off as he moved from fifth to third to secure the second podium of his WorldSSP career, which was a deserved reward for his accomplished body of work.
“A pretty good weekend, we were fast from the get-go. We had a few little niggly things that altered our first race from about halfway through onwards, a lack of front grip. We made a few changes to the bike and made it so that I could push a little bit less in the early laps of race two, which meant I had a little bit more tyre at the end. Still, we had a little bit of a drop-off with about two or three laps to go, and I made a few small mistakes, which lost me to the group. It’s a shame for Tom that he went down, also for Lucas, they both went down on the last lap, so I kind of went from fifth to third, and that’s how we finished the weekend. So, I mean, it’s a positive weekend, we had speed all throughout, so we need to take the confidence we got from this weekend and use it to try to help us in Aragon,” Bayliss asserted.
Off-Track
Jake Cannon – EMX250 + French Championship
Jake Cannon gave another impressive showing in the French Championship at Vesoul by blasting to third overall with a pair of P3 finishes. Following a tough start in race one, he stormed through the field and even set the quickest lap by 1.5 seconds. He then backed it up in race two by recovering from an early mistake to bank another podium. The result kept him second in the championship and in a quality spot heading into the next round, where he looked to turn this momentum into an even bigger push.
Pic: MA
At the subsequent round in Gaillac, Cannon showed blistering speed once again but had to claw through adversity after crashing on the opening lap of both motos. He charged from P37 all the way to P7 in the first moto, then rebounded from an early fall in race two to climb from P9 to P4. Those two rides secured him P5 overall on the day and kept him second in the championship as the season rolls on.
Read our previous Aussies Racing Abroad columns here…
Liam Owens – EMX250 + ADAC German Championship
Even though Liam Owens had an ADAC German Championship round to forget at Dreetz, where he went 8‑12‑6 for eighth overall, he rapidly turned the page and came back swinging at Bitche. Owens opened his weekend with a spirited P5 on Saturday. The result wasn’t quite what he wanted, but he was pleased with his pace and assertive charge through the pack, knowing a better start on Sunday would make the difference.
Pic: Cat Moto Bauerschmidt
He came up big on that promise with third overall for the round by virtue of fourth and fifth in race two and three, in an event where he displayed handy speed in the motos. Owens admitted some missteps cost him track position, but with defined areas to sharpen, he’s focused on fixing these and keeping up the pace as the series progresses.
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