This round was particularly special the MotoGP aspirant, as it was raced at the iconic Japanese Suzuka Circuit. 

“Coming into the famous Suzuka Circuit in Japan was absolutely amazing, my nerves balanced my excitement,” Reid told MC News on his return to Australian soil earlier this week. 

One of the biggest challenges for the local is competing world-famous courses for the first time against several rivals who are familiar to the tarmac there. 

But he was given two practice sessions to get used to the course where he told MC News he fared well. 

“I felt not to bad, but the lap time wasn’t quite there,” he said. 

He picked up to settle in eighth place during qualifying, but then had an off after a false-neutral and didn’t finish the session. 

Battye said things went from bad to worse as he continued to push himself just a little too far during race heats. 

“I got a terrible start in race one, dropping back to 17^th from 13^th on the grid,” he said, before clawing back to 12^th, but crashing out. “unfortunately I struggled with a bit of speed. This led me to pushing a little too hard into the fastest corner on the track, crashing out on lap eight.”

Race two didn’t get much better with technical problems on the bike causing the Bermagui young gun to drop time on each lap and trail the pack throughout. 

“That wasn’t a good experience at all,” Reid recalls with a laugh as he’s taking a positive attitude from the challenges. 

“Overall though the experience was amazing, and I learnt a lot from the weekend.”

He said he was already putting positive focus on round four of the series that will race in Malaysia at the end of July. 

The family is also looking at options to get some trial runs on bikes that match the Asia Talent Cup series locally with some prospects looking good for the young gun. 

Meanwhile, Reid’s domestic career is soaring, with a hold on the lead of the 300cc class in the Australian Super Bike Championship (ASBK). 

Riding a 300cc Ninja, Reid has been outshining some of his rivals in the higher capacity class and he will be a fan-favourite at round four at Hidden Valley Raceway from July 7-9. 

He holds a 36 point lead on the series ahead of Victoria’s Scott Nicholson, and a further 10 points back in third is Yannis Shaw, who has consistently run third this series. 

At home Reid is also working his way through school and said it was a big challenge to juggle the two.