Jake Lewis is "living the dream", his impressive performances for Yamaha in domestic events at home during the past few seasons giving him the confidence to tackle top-level road-racing in Europe.
Lewis raced a Yamaha R6 to finish third overall in the 600 supersport class at the 2013 New Zealand Superbike Championships, which wrapped up at Taupo in March. He immediately packed his bags for the European Junior Cup.
Now nearly halfway through his eight-round cup campaign - where he is second in the standings - the 18-year-old Lewis reflects on what has been a fantastic season.
He won the opening round of the European Junior Cup in Spain in April but then disaster struck when he crashed out of the points at round two in the Netherlands. He rebounded to finish third at round three in Monza, Italy, last month.
He now braces himself for the fourth round at Imola, Italy, on June 30.
"It has been a fantastic experience so far this year with a few ups and downs; the highs have been great with the win first up at Aragon in the EJC and adding a third to that at Monza which was something special. I have also managed to do a few track days with [NZ former international superbike star and GP winner] Simon Crafar, with the highlight being three days at Valencia, which was an awesome experience, getting to ride Simon's 750cc bike flat-out around there for three days doesn't get much better.
"We have two more track days planned soon at Le Mans and Jerez, so I am really looking forward to a good six days on these great circuits.
"My opportunity of getting a wild card ride last weekend at Imola for team Tecnicamoto was also another highlight and being able to run at the front of the 38 strong field was quite special.
"Thank you to Andrea and Elena of Tecnicamoto and Phil and Cheryl London of WIL Sport Management for making the weekend at Imola possible.
"I want to shout out a huge thank you to all my supporters who have been right behind me throughout my racing and to the generous people who have helped make it possible for me to be in Europe this season.
"I would like to say a big thank you to Tony and Amos of Stadium Finance, Stadium Cars, RaceSupplies NZ , Budget MC Spares, Charlton Hurrell Drainage, John Palmer, Roger Townshend, Carol Whall, Merv Orford, Geoff Kelly, Dave Milligan, Motorcycling Canterbury and many of you in the MCC Family and Motorcycling New Zealand community for all your support, we have some great opportunities being discussed for next year already which is exciting so I will be pushing hard for top results for the remainder of the season to show I am worthy of a big opportunity in this tough sport."