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The young American rider signs with Valencia based IGAX Team for his 2nd season in the European Talent Cup

February 16th - Valencia, Spain

The 2021 European Talent Cup season was one of the most competitive since the series' inception in 2017, with 54 riders registered and lap times only 1.8 seconds off of the MotoGP Moto 3 lap times. Now that 13 year-old Los Angeles native Kristian Daniel Jr. has his rookie season out of the way, where he was the youngest on the grid, he's prepared to make a big improvement in 2022.


Photo by Manuel Tormo

Kristian Jr will once again be only American rider on ETC grid, and he's aiming to bring home some points for the USA. He made good progress in his rookie season with the AGR Team, his best finish being 28th out of 53 riders. It was not an easy process, as he had to come to grips with riding the Moto3 Honda NSR250 around historic MotoGP tracks all over Spain and Portugal at almost 150 mph (230 kph). He was set to qualify in the top 10 at the last round of the season, but fell victim to mixed wet/dry conditions and crashed out of the last corner in Valencia during qualifying. Although he left the last round injured, his performance gave him a lot of confidence going into his 2nd season.


Photo by Manuel Tormo

For the 2022 season, the young American signed with the IGAX team. The Valencia based team mainly focuses on grooming young riders, having a lot of experience in many of the Jr. classes like Moto4, Pre-Moto3, Promo3 which lead up to the European Talent Cup. With the new team, a more intensive winter training program and a whole season under his belt, Kristian Jr is ready to make an impact in 2022.


Photo by Miguel Angel - Montcircuit