VOL. 52 ISSUE 36 SEPTEMBER 9, 2015 P85
"But now that I've got used
to things, the team's starting to
work really well, I would like to
try to get a podium before the
end of the year. I've had a few
top fives—I would have liked to
have finished in the top five in
the championship—but at least
this last race [Indy] it's the clos-
est I've been to the top guys. At
least now I know that I can run
with these guys."
And going back to the tracks,
they're a bit different from what
he's used to in South Africa.
"We've got a few world class
tracks [Kyalami that hosted
World Superbike and Phakisa
Raceway that hosted MotoGP],
but one of the things I've had
to get used to at some of the
tracks here is the elevation," he
said. "There's a lot of elevation,
up and down, blind corners and
stuff which we don't have much
of that in South Africa. Indy's
probably been the closest track
that we have to home. It's flat
and there's not a lot of blind
corners."
Even though it was an adjust-
ment, Petersen took it in stride.
"I like to think I'm a quick
learner," he said. "But that's
definitely held me back a little bit
as well [having to learn all-new
tracks]. Everywhere we've gone
I've never been to the track so
I've had to learn quickly, and I
think I have."
Another adjustment was
moving to a new country, but
the young South African is quite
happy in his home away from
to go race World Supersport
for one of the Honda teams,"
he said. "For same amount of
money as here, but with the
new MotoAmerica series and all
the new owners and everything
taking over we just thought that
America was the right place to
come. It's proven that way so far.
"Even just speaking to Sheri-
dan [Morais], who's raced in the
World Superbikes for the last
few years, he just said that this
paddock, this series is 10 times
better than World Superbikes.
It's strong and it just seems like it
gets stronger and stronger every
race. So I think we definitely
made the right decision to come
to America."
Although Petersen was happy
to be here, it was a bit rough at
first—a new country, new team,
new tracks, new tires, etc.
"I didn't really know what to
expect coming here," he said.
"I didn't know what the level of
riding was. For sure, the first two
or three rounds I struggled a lot,
just getting used to the tires; we
ran Pirellis, they run Dunlops
here. We ran stock suspen-
sion. I'd never worked with data
or anything like that before. So
it took me quite a while to get
used to the bikes. And at the
beginning I honestly started
doubting my ability. I'm like, well,
'maybe I'm not good enough to
be here.'"
Eventually though, everything
started to gel, and with that
the confidence to run with the
leaders.
Cameron (right) and his dad
Robbie (left) made the trek to the
U.S. to pursue his dream of racing
overseas.
