Sports Star of Tomorrow: Nick Cain and Alastair Hoogenboezem | Canterbury Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Canterbury

Schoolboys Nick Cain and Alastair Hoogenboezem are already tasting what it's like to be professional motorbike racers.

They're escaping school regularly this year to race in Australia.

Both at St Thomas of Canterbury College, they're making five trips across the Tasman to compete in three states in the Motorcycle Road Race Development Association's series for top teenage riders.

As well as five rounds of racing on Honda CBR150s, the series includes training for the motorbike stars of the future in media awareness and sponsorship.

Against Aussie's best young riders, the Christchurch pair had creditable results in the first two rounds at Oran Park, NSW, and Winton Raceway, Victoria. Cain is seventh overall and Hoogenboezem 10th.

"It's been really fun, a different experience and different riding, and totally different bikes and tracks," said 14-year-old Hoogenboezem.

He's been on bikes since he was four, starting with a little 50 for dirt racing, and is now in his second year of road racing. He was third in the King of Ruapuna street stock series for junior riders.

Cain, who is 13, had a Nifty 50 as his first bike when he was eight and also learned on dirt bikes. He moved up to 150s on the road last August, and was runner-up in the national road racing series for Suzuki RG150s.

"A lot of the people in Australia are quite fast and it is challenging to race against them," he said.

They return for more racing in Brisbane in July, Wakefield, NSW, in August, and Phillip Island, Victoria, in October.