Attention ladies. Girlfriends. Sisters. Mothers even. If you’ve ever wanted to be a model, here’s your chance!

Apparel giants O’Neals famous O’Neal Girls have been gracing the California brands awesome global ad campaigns, posters and calendars for years now. So famous are they that O’Neal even runs a massive annual model comp in the USA to find a new O’Neal Girl. The chance to become one of the pin-ups has only been open to all-American girls in the past though. Not for 2013 however.

For the first time ever O’Neal is launching its famous model search in Europe to find a Euro-based hottie to grace its ads and posters and has teamed up with MOTO to find the fine female who will win this awesome accolade and travel to the USA to be photographed with the rest of the O’Neal girls for all the 2013 promotional material, as well as a whole raft of other sweet prizes too.

Yes that’s right, one lucky lady from our great continent will become the first ever European O’Neal girl and this is the package that is up for grabs. It’s a cracker:
A big ole check for $1000
Flights for you and a friend to Los Angeles
Hotel accommodation for three days and two nights
$500 spending money for the winner whilst in LA
A professional photshoot with O’Neal, of which selected shots will feature in either a 2013 O’Neal print ad, the O’Neal Calendar and/ or an O’Neal poster

This is a massive prize and great opportunity, so if you think you’ve got what it takes to be Europe’s first O’Neal girl then EMAIL IMAGES with your name and what country you are from or if you have a website, Facebook page or online Modelling portfolio send us the links.

EMAIL HERE

All British entries will be shown on this page with a link back to their page on O’Neal if they make it through – we would love a British winner.

Entries so far
ONEALE Candice (2) Candice (3) Candice (4) Candice (5) Candice (6) Candice (7) Candice (8) Candice (9) Candice (10) Candice (11) candice c Candice MC Candice Candice Candice Jade (2) Jade (3) Jade (4) Jade (5) Jade (6) Jade (7) Jade Jade Leah (2) Leah (3) Leah (4) Leah (5) Leah (6) Leah (7) Leah Natalie (2) Natalie (3) Natalie (4) Natalie (5) Natalie (6) Natalie bea me sw Sarka Sarka-2 Sarka-(3) Linda (15) Linda (16) Linda (17) Linda (18) Linda (1) Linda (2) Linda (3) Linda (4) Linda (5) Linda (6) Linda (7) Linda (8) Linda (9) Linda (10) Linda (11) Linda (12) Linda (13) Linda (14) Kristin (4) Kristin (5) Kristin (6) Kristin (7) Kristin (8) Kristin (1) Kristin (2) Kristin (3) Galina 2 Galina 3 Galina 4 Galina Nelly 4 Nelly 3 Nelly 2 Nelly Monja Monja 2 Jessica (3) Jessica (4) Jessica (5) Jessica (6) Jessica (7) Jessica (1) Jessica (2) Angelice (3) Angelice (1) Angelice (2) Kheenah (3) Kheenah (4) Kheenah (5) Kheenah (6) Kheenah (7) Kheenah (1) Kheenah (2) Melanie (6) Melanie Melanie (1) Melanie (2) Melanie (3) Melanie (4) Melanie (5) Verena 3 Verena 2 Verena Leonie Smith Leonie Smith (1) leonie Smith (2) Atlanta (2) Atlanta (3) Atlanta (4) Atlanta (1) Jenn (7) Jenn (8) SONY DSC Jenn (2) Jenn (3) Jenn (4) Jenn (5) Jenn (6) c05ca91d6decd9c67fc47d48beb73316134168769298351246 a1c72c231b2104438b2f23dce9837102133275217957865360 ebf382187eb2fcb92b16e50ef970c4f4133320731171214404 154ffc8f485d1944ee6d015a7a1c9345134097350165341053 3c5c52dabfce638f1f4c4f891ad8debf131470586397895332 0dadcf7870b4ec7d295b4cbaa29ff626134558086018185572 228797_100403053395999_100002789130393_790_616632_n 422617_263477610421875_1756486528_n Daisy (5) Daisy (6) Daisy (7) Daisy (8) Daisy (1) Daisy (2) Daisy (3) Daisy (4) 2012-10-04_Danneberg-19 image SAM_2156 SAM_2179 2012-10-04_Danneberg-1 2012-10-04_Danneberg-5 2012-10-04_Danneberg-10 2012-10-04_Danneberg-18 Angela (5) Angela (6) Angela (7) Angela (1) Angela (2) Angela (3) Angela (4) Natalie (6) Natalie (7) Natalie (8) Natalie (1) Natalie (2) Natalie (3) Natalie (4) Natalie (5) Kristina (2) Kristina (3) Kristina (4) SONY DSC Kristina (1) Tegan (1) Tegan (2) Tegan (3) Maria 2 Maria 3 Maria 4 Maria 5 Maria 6 Maria 7 SONY DSC Maria 1 Maria (4) Maria (5) Maria (6) Maria (7) Maria (1) Maria (2) Maria (3) Jessica 4 Jessica 3 Jessica 2 Jessica 1 cathy (5) cathy (6) cathy (7) cathy (8) cathy (1) cathy (2) cathy (3) cathy (4) Corinne (2) Corinne (3) Corinne (4) Corinne (5) Corinne (6) SONY DSC Corinne (8) Corinne (9) Corinne (10) Corinne (1) 384848_3520273020278_1378810950_n Larissa-2 Larissa-1 Félin (2) Félin (3) Félin (4) Félin (5) Félin (6) Félin (7) Félin (8) Félin (9) Félin (10) Félin (11) Félin (12) Félin (13) Félin (14) Félin (15) Félin (1) Nicole Laura (1) Laura (2) Laura (3) Marielle (6) Marielle (7) Marielle (8) Marielle (1) Marielle (2) Marielle (3) Marielle (4) Marielle (5) Sabrina (3) Sabrina (4) Sabrina (5) Sabrina (6) Sabrina (7) Sabrina (8) Sabrina (9) Sabrina (10) Sabrina (11) Sabrina (12) Sabrina (13) Sabrina (14) Sabrina (15) Sabrina (16) Sabrina (17) Sabrina (18) Sabrina (1) Sabrina (1) Sabrina (2) Sabrina (2) Anja (2) Anja (3) Anja (4) Anja (5) Anja (6) Anja (7) Anja (8) Anja (1)

INSTRUCTIONS
Entrants must be 18 years of age or older.
You must provide 1 to 8 photos to be entered into the contest. 8 is better than 1.
The photos must have been taken within the past 6 months.
Images must be submitted in JPEG format and be under 500k.
Group pictures are not accepted. You should be alone on the picture!
Increase your chances of success by uploading body shots and headshots. Bikini shots are great because chances are you’ll be wearing one in the O’Neal photo shoot.
Unfortunately or fortunately (we haven’t figured that out yet), there have been some nude photos submitted to our contest. We do appreciate your celebration of the First Amendment, but we cannot publish “birthday suit” photos on our web site.

What makes a champion motocrosser? It’s a question many of us mere mortals have asked often.

The five men who star in MOTO 84 all know exactly what it takes to be a winner. Tony Cairoli, Ryan Dungey, Jeffrey Herlings, Mel Pocock and the great Ricky Carmichael were all winners in 2012, all champions, and it these heroes of our sport we salute in MOTO’s Champions special issue.

Exclusively in MOTO we profile, probe and honour these five men who won big this summer, whether first time champ or retired god returning to his amateur roots. Not forgetting the record AMA champ turned Indy car racer turned team owner Jeff Ward, who lays out his forthright views in another exclusive ‘I know this Much’ too.

Bikes new and old take centre stage in MOTO 84 too. Not only does MOTO have the first UK tests of the hotly anticipated new 2013 Honda CRF450 and Suzuki’s flagship RMZ450, but MOTO’s chief test ace Dave Willet also rides the factory Kawasaki bikes of Gautier Paulin and Xavier Boog, whilst MOTO’s own resident star spanner man Doc Wobs recounts his epic efforts to restore five KX500 two-strokes for Team USA legends to race at the Farleigh Castle VMXdN.

With more exclusive enduro content in the shape of an extremely frank interview with David Knight, racing action from the Farleigh Vets race and the Langrish British champs showdown and a whole lot more, MOTO 84 is another packed issue.

And if that wasn’t enough, you also get another entirely free magazine with the issue too – UMX Magazine 2, a packed 82-pages featuring all the 2013 proucts from the likes of Thor, Ogio and Asterisk. Enjoy.

The video from the 2013 RM-Z450 UK press launch – our chief tester Dave Willet gives it a right royal rippin around Apex Moto Parc.

Image by Adam Duckworth

On a fine autumn day with blue skies and plenty of sunshine the Three Counties Classic Scramble club hosted their final meeting of the year at the popular Tirley Court Farm circuit, near Gloucester. Recent rain made conditions tacky to start, but as the day went on the track dried out producing some great action in all classes. The event was well supported and smoothly run with classes catering for everyone from Classic’s to the Evolution machines, with a sidecar group thrown in for good measure.

First up were the Evo riders on machines up to 1989. This was basically a three horse race between James Herbert, Pauls Biggs and Matt Evans as they were neck and neck in every race. Herbert managed to keep ahead to win the opener over a very menacing Biggs. These positions were reversed in the follow up as Biggs got the better of Herbert, and in the final leg Evans tasted victory as he fought off Biggs, Gavin Hickman and Matthew Hitchman.

The “Twevo” class – for novice Twinshock and Evo riders had one of the biggest line-ups of the day. Nick Selwyn secured the overall on his Cagiva having a consistent day with a win and two seconds under his belt as Ben Dowdeswell, Glenn Selby and Andrew Buxton all had extremely pleasing rides filling the remaining overall vacancies.

A group of Pre 84 Sidecars were certainly a crowd pleaser and really kept the spectators entertained as they ripped up the track. Paul Harker and Dave Kiesslinger put together a score of 1-1-2 over the Father and Son pairing of Simon and Joe Chell, who found a clear track in the final encounter to edge their Norton Wasp ahead.

Pre 72 British Champion Chris Chell would no doubt be a firm favourite of any event that he would enter, and his winning streak continued as he totally dominated both of the Classic events on the days programme. In the Pre 77’s he took his Cheney BSA to a hat-trick of immaculate wins, bagging the overall honours over Alan Barnett and Glenn Morgan. It was business as usual in the Pre 68 class to boot, again looking comfortable for a clean sweep of wins and the best of the day over Carl Woollaston, Roger Dunford and Mitchell Harris.

Some of the closest racing of the day was supplied by the Twinshock class. In the first race it was Welsh Twinshock Champion Dan Evans who led through the first turns over Rotax mounted Richard Stiby, Kevin Butcher and Vince Larcombe. By the end of the first lap Stiby had managed to edge his Fourstroke ahead of Evans, remaining neck and neck throughout the race with Stiby winning by a whisker. In the follow up Evans led from the gate with Stiby on his tail for the whole duration, leaving Andy Mills a lonely third over Butcher. Stiby wasn’t hanging about in the last race – urging his Armstrong to the front right from the start line and never looked back. Evans tried all the moves but to no avail – Stiby was on fine form, taking a great win in superb style. Evans took second whilst Butcher and Mills had a race long tussle for third.

As a final treat for riders and spectators, the alcomers race at the end of the day brought the top solo riders together. Chell was quick to power ahead, throwing his classic to the front ahead of Biggs and Evans. Biggs soon hit the front en route to victory as Chell remained in second over Selwyn, Lee Hicks and Matthew Hitchman.

Overall Results
Evolution 1. Paul Biggs (Honda) 2. Matt Evans (Suzuki) 3. James Herbert (Kawasaki) 4. Paul Kirby (Suzuki) 5. Jordon Pope (??) 6. Gavin Hickman (Suzuki)

Twevo 1. Nick Selwyn (Cagiva) 2. Ben Dowdeswell (Kawasaki) 3. Glenn Selby (Kawasaki) 4. Andrew Buxton (Honda) 5. Stuart Selby (Yamaha) 6. Gwyn Hardwick ( Husqvarna)

Pre 84 Sidecars 1. Paul Harker/Dave Kiesslinger (Yamaha Wasp) 2. Simon Chell/Joe Chell (Norton Wasp) 3. Nick Leatherland/Paul Young (Yamaha Wasp) 4. Dave Burge/James Cuff (Yamaha Wasp) 5. Charles Chivers/Kevin Mullins (Rotax) 6. Neil Hiscock/Steve Baughan (Yamaha)

Pre 77 1. Chris Chell (Cheney BSA) 2. Alan Barnett (Montessa) 3. Glenn Morgan (CZ) 4. Pete Adams (CZ) 5. Sam Gittoes (CZ) 6. Gwyn Hardwick (Husqvarna)

Pre 68 1. Chell 2. Carl Woolaston (BSA) 3. Roger Dunford (BSA) 4. Mitchell Harris (BSA) 5. Kim Maddocks (Metisse) 6. Jordon Pope

Twinshock 1. Richard Stiby (Armstrong) 2. Dan Evans (Husqvarna) 3. Kevin Butcher (Suzuki) 4. Andy Mills (Maico) 5. Vince Larcombe (Monda) 6. Paul Evans (Honda)

Alcomers 1. Biggs 2. Chell 3. Selwyn 4. Hickman 5. Matthew Hitchman (KTM) 6. Jordon Pope

In a script that couldn’t have been written, Mel Pocock put all his effort into trying to clinch the Maxxis British MX2 Championship. Despite all his efforts Mel was unable to beat Elliot, but still took the runner up position in the championship. Mel’s teammate Shaun Simpson put on his best performance and took the overall win after coming 2nd to Strijbos in the MX1 championship.

Our chief tester Dave Willet gets all the best jobs this time testing the brand new 2013 Honda CRF450 in sunny old Italy.

The full feature and breakdown of the bike is in this months MOTO Magazine issue 84.

Motorcycle Live 2012 is of course about seeing the 2013 bikes in the UK for the first time, but it is also a chance to see something new and maybe even learn a new skill. This year, the Auto Cycle Union (ACU) in conjunction with Birstall Urban Motorcycle Project for Youth (BUMPY) will be offering the chance to try the impressive sport of trials riding in a FREE taster session.

In the ACU Try Trials Area, show visitors will be kitted out in the appropriate protective clothing and spend 15-minutes receiving direction and guidance with an ACU-certified instructor to get to grips with the basics of this highly-skilled discipline. Visitors can also see the experts at work in twice-daily trials demonstrations, taking place at 10.30am and 1.30pm. These visitors to the 2011 show were certainly impressed:

ACU Trials Experience – Motorcycle Live 2012 Teaser

“Awesome!!” – Nicola Ford, 55, Suffolk

“Wow!” – Alex Cooper, 21, Heathfield

“Fab!” – James Dyke, 33, Norwich

“This was an unexpected feature. I didn’t try it myself this time,
but one of our friends had a go and he loved trying to throw that trials bike around! The professional demonstration was very skillful and worth watching even if you weren’t up for trying it yourself.” – Mick Datitz Fenwick, 42, Tiverton

To be eligible to take part, riders must be at least 16 years old (if under 18 you must have a parent or legal guardian with you to sign you on) and have a valid DVLA motorcycle licence or have an ACU competition licence. Sessions will commence from 10.15am daily and can be booked on a first come, first served basis by visiting the ACU stand in Hall 3.

The ACU Try Trials Area is just one of the exciting live features at this year’s show. The all-inclusive Motorcycle Live ticket gives FREE access to five exhibition halls crammed with all the latest bikes, clothing and accessories and six opportunities to ride a bike**, plus non-stop entertainment from some of the biggest names in biking on the Blackhorse Stage in the British Eurosport Entertainment Zone. Also featuring the BSH/Streetfighters Custom Xtreme Zone, the Yamaha Escape Zone, the Classic Zone in association with Coventry Transport Museum and FREE entry into the Ramp’d Up Freestyle Motocross Arena**.

Advance tickets for Motorcycle Live 2012 cost just £16 per adult, £10 for seniors and £6 per child*. To book your tickets, call 0844 581 2345 or visit www.motorcyclelive.co.uk

Bleary-eyed from a tough weekend at the 66th Motocross of Nations at Lommel, Route77energy MVR-D Honda made the last trek of the year to Little Silver just outside Exeter this past weekend. Although harsh weather was forecast, things changed in time to leave the hillside venue with perfect conditions for one last chance to make up some more points for both MX1 riders of the team.

Qualifying on Sunday morning saw Jason Dougan qualify in sixth with team-mate Gert Krestinov in eighth, positions that were unchanged after the super-pole.

Dougan’s first race was a roller-coaster ride. Downed at the start, he soon found himself just outside the points, but issues stemming from several more crashes needed a pitstop to rectify, which in turn dropped him back into the back of the pack. Determined to finish the race in the points, Dougan put everything he had into the race and leap-frogged his way to twentieth, then to sixteenth where he was unable to quite reach his rival in fifteenth as the chequered flag waved.

In the second race, order was restored with a great start in fifth. From here, Dougan found himself embroiled in a battle with returned class rival Brad Anderson, reeling him in but time once again running out for a fourth in the race. With the first two races tallied up, Dougan was still ninth overall, putting him through into the super-final race at the end of the day. But here things ended in disaster. First down in the first corner, and then, after a restart, caught up in a crash fest after the second corner, Dougan was forced to retire with a severely bruised hand, ending his race before he’d even gotten started, leaving him in twelfth overall on the day. All was not lost as Dougan moved up to eleventh in the championship.

For Krestinov, the day’s proceedings were entirely the opposite. Off the first race start in front of the majority of the pack, he was forced to settle into a steady rhythm, keeping at bay KTM’s Jamie Law for much of the race. A small opening cost him a position, ending the race in eighth. In the second race, a mid-pack start was soon followed up by a fast and furious chase during which rival after rival was picked off. With a third of the race to go, Krestinov re-entered the top ten, continuing to pick off rivals as he went, ending the second race in seventh for a comfortable seventh start in the super-final.

The super-final’s format and the restart set Krestinov up perfectly for a great start. Eighth around the first lap, he soon settled into a good rhythm and displaced Alex Snow for fourth, wedged between MX1 class champion Kevin Strijbos and MX2 title contender Mel Pocock. The fourth gained in this race together with the other two race results gave Krestinov a fourth overall on the day, confirming his third place in the championship.

Commented team principal Mark Chamberlain: “It’s been so-so in all honesty, but I’m glad everyone’s come through it ok, Gert secured third in the championship so he’s done his job, which we are really pleased about. Thank you to him and the team, the mechanics and everyone else who’s been involved. That’s been a solid year for him. And it’s been a mixed day for Jason, he’s been up and down, had a good second race but crashed out of the last one. He’s ok and in one piece, that’s the main thing. Now we just put our head down for 2013.”

Gert Krestinov (#37): I was eighth in practice, and in the first race I had some trouble with my goggles and I couldn’t see anything, so the goggles came off and I had to settle for eighth. The second race wasn’t all that special and I got a seventh. In the last race I got a really good start, had really good lines and was able to make some passes and get a fourth. I’m sad I didn’t get to pass Strijbos on the last lap, I had him in sight but he passed me back, but fourth was good enough and fourth overall as well. I’m really happy with the season.

Jason Dougan (#17): I went down a couple of times in the first moto and had to make a pit stop, but managed to salvage some points for sixteenth. I had an average start in the second race but came through to fourth and was happy with the way I was riding. In the last moto got wiped out in turn two and bashed myself and the bike up, so DNF. It’s definitely not what I hoped for today, roll on 2013!

Sunday saw the Maxxis Henderson LPE Kawasaki team make the long trip town to Exeter for the final round of the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship. For the final round of the year the LPE team went into the event with a four rider line up. With the recent bad weather in the South West the team were surprised to find the track in superb condition ready for racing.

Sunday started with the MX2 qualifying session and guest rider for the team Steven Lenoir produced a solid lap time to progress into the Superpole session. Returning rider David Goosen was making his first Maxxis appearance of the season and posted a 27th fastest time. In the Superpole Lenoir was able to improve his time and move into 6th place. In the MX1 class, young Connor Walkley was making his second appearance on the 450f alongside Gordon Crockard who would be testing the new 2013 machine for the team. Both riders produced solid lap times to finish in 14th and 15th for Crockard and Walkley.

After the lunch break it was time for the first race of the day and both Lenoir and Goosen suffered with poor starts and had to work forward. Lenoir quickly battled his way into the points and went on to finish in 11th. For Goosen it was to challenging race as he worked his way up to as high as 22nd before finishing in 27th.

The first MX1 race of the day saw both riders make mid pack starts, Walkley quickly moved into the points and set about closing in on the top 10, for Crockard it was to be a slower progress as he made it into the points for 19th place. Walkley eventually went on the finish in 12th place in his first British Championship race in MX1.

The second MX2 race of the day saw Lenoir make a better start to the race and was quickly into the top 10. Lenoir continued to push forward and finished in 7th place. Goosen had another tough race after a poor start left him with a lot of work to do. Goosen eventually finished in 31st place and missed out on Super Final at the end of the day.

The second MX1 race of the day again saw the pair make average starts, but Walkley quickly made a number of moves on the first lap and was into 15th place. Walkley was looking good in 15th and was making moves forward towards the top ten until a crash on the 3rd lap left Walkley a lap down and with a lot work to do. Crockard again had a steady race and finished in 19th place, while Walkley recovered to 27th place.

The final race of the season would be the mixed race, with both Lenoir and Walkley in the race. The race suffered a false start and a red flag after another rider hit the gate. After a 30 minute delay the race was restarted and Walkley produced his best start of the day and rounded the first corner just outside of the top 12. For Lenoir things didn’t go as well as a crash on the opening lap left the French rider at the back of the field and with a lot of work to do. As the race went on Walkley was able to settle down and finish in 13th place in the race and 9th MX1 rider for 14th overall on the day from two race results. Lenoir would eventually finish in 21st place in the race and 9th MX2 rider just outside the points and take 9th overall on the day and 6th in the Championship standings.

Gordon Crockard
I gained a lot of valuable technical information from racing the new 2013 KXF450 in full standard trim. I used the event as a test to contribute to part of the preparation programme for next season’s championship attack from the team. Putting the bike through the race weekend gave great feedback and had many positive benefits. My personal results were irrelevant and I can take the 19th place finishes in my stride without embarrassment. I will have more chances to race for podium finishes in the future.

Connor Walkley
I’ve had a lot of fun day today and scored some good points in my first Maxxis MX1 race despite crashing and not scoring points in race two. I still managed a top 15 overall, so I’m happy with that. I’d just like to say a huge thanks to Steve and everyone else for all there help along the way.

David Goosen
Today has been pretty good, I had a problem with the back brake on my race bike in practice and had to use my spare. In the first race I rode pretty good and kept the same pace all race and then towards the end I got a little bit of arm pump and lost a couple of places. Then in the second race it was a lot rougher and I struggled a lot and never got into my groove. I’ve got a lot of work to do before next year but I’m glad to be back after my knee injury.

Steven Lenoir
Today was my first time on the Kawasaki bike and it was good, the track was ok but I never managed to get a good jump out of the gate. The first race I got a poor start and came back to 11th which was ok, then in the second race I got a better start and rode good and finished in 7th. In the Superfinal I got a really good start and then it was red flagged and in the restart I crashed in the opening corners. I finished in 21st and outside the points; I’d like to say a big thanks to Steve at LPE and the whole team.

Steve James
Today’s been a good day and a good end to what has been a very tough and challenging year. In MX2 today it was David Goosen’s second race back from his knee injury, David looked good on the bike but struggled a bit with bike fitness and pace over the duration of the races, but it was good to see him out there and he finished both races which is a step forward in his recovery. As a guest rider in MX2 we had French rider Steven Lenoir, Steven struggled a bit with bike set up to begin with but that was to be expected as qualifying today was the first time he had ridden the bike. But he qualified well in 6th place during Superpole. In the races Steven suffered with bad starts but we made a few changes to the bike throughout the day which helped him to charge hard through the pack to finish in 9th overall. In MX1 we again had Connor riding the 450f and he proved again that he is more suited to the bigger bike. In the first race he had a 12th place finish and then in the second race he was 13th before a crash left him at the back of the field and having to recover the 27th. He made it into the Grand final and finished 13th in the race and was the 9th MX1 bike home, to finish in the top 10 of a MX1 race at the first attempt is a mega result. Gordon rode the new 2013 KXF 450 for us this weekend as a race test to get some data ready for next season, he had two point scoring rides and in doing so we gained some very good feedback, it has been a pleasure to have Gordon on the team riding our bike in the last four races to fill in for the injured Ray Rowson and I would like the thank him for the valuable feedback he has given us during testing and the races.. Finally I’d like to thank Kawasaki UK, Maxxis, Henderson Insurance, Links Plant and Equipment Ltd, Truck Links, Pro Circuit, Apico, Spiral GFX, Renthal UK, CI Sport and all the rest of the teams many loyal sponsors each and everyone of them are so very important to me and without them it just wouldn’t be possible to run the team, Also I want to thank all the team personnel and everybody involved on the team, the mechanics the truck drivers and all the team helpers for everything they have done this season, it’s been a tough year but thanks to everyone involved we got through it and ended the season with a smile on our faces looking forward to 2013.

Little Silver was the last round of the British championship and I was set to end the season on a high note. We’d had a lot of rain the week before but the track was surprisingly dry. It’s not one of my favourite tracks but I put that behind me and focused on doing my best.

Qualifying was extremely close, I got a good lap in early which put me into 10th, as the session went on I put more laps in but couldn’t better my time. I dropped back to 17th but if I’d have been a second a lap faster I’d have been inside the top 12. 17th gave me a reasonable gate pick so I wasn’t too down after that.

Race 1
Lining up for the first race, yet again someone stole the gate I had prepped and I was left with a very soft rut to line up in. I didn’t get a very good jump out the gate and was left near the back of the pack. The first few laps were carnage and I tried my best to pass as many people as I could. About 5 laps in the rider in front of me dropped it in a rut right in front of me, I had nowhere to go and ended up losing more positions. I controlled my frustration and got my head down, within a few laps I had gone from 32nd to about 25th. I made a few more passes which put me into 22nd. With 3 laps to go the next group of riders were a good 8 seconds in front of me. I reeled them in and was only a bikes length behind them at the finish. A very frustrating race but I learnt a lot from it.

Race 2
After getting a terrible start in race 1 I knew I had to get a better start in the second race. I got a better jump out the gate and was inside the top 20 going round the first corner. The first half of the lap I lost a few places by making a few mistakes and going off line. Within the first few laps I’d made some passes and got inside the top 20. There was a group of riders about 5 seconds in front of me which I could see. I tried my best to be smooth and ride some consistent laps. Within 3 laps I’d caught the group and passed my way into 16th. I was also closing in on 15th but with the races only being 20 minutes I ran out of time. Looking back at the lap chart my times were good enough to get me inside the top 12, just need to work on perfecting my start technique.

Race 3
The final race of the day was mixed MX1 and MX2 which was 30 minutes + 2 laps. Luckily I got enough points from the second race to just get me into the final race. I had 33rd gate pick which meant I had to start right on the outside. I got a very good jump but got out dragged by the 450’s down the straight. There was a big pile up on the second corner and unfortunately I found myself in it, dropping right to the back. With 30 minutes I knew I had time to catch back up, I just needed to not make any mistakes. Within the first few laps I’d caught up to a few riders and put myself into the top 30. The next group of riders were quite a way ahead of me but I didn’t give up trying to catch them. With about 10 minutes to go I caught and passed my way into 28th, pulled a big gap on the riders behind me and rode my own race. Unfortunately the next few riders were quite a way ahead and I ran out of time to catch back up. I was fairly happy with 28th but knew I could have done a lot better with a decent start.

Being the last race of the season we’re now having a few weeks off the bike ready for training over the winter and getting ready for 2013. A huge thank you for all your help and support over the 2012 season, without everyone’s help we couldn’t do it. It hasn’t been what I expected with ongoing injuries but I’ve learnt a lot and know how to improve on next year. 2013 will be a better year for us and expect to see some better results!