RACING MACHINE

Where did you grow up?

I grew up at Soldiers Point, which is a small suburb of Port Stephens (NSW).

I got my first dirtbike when I was six. Luke George and I went right through school together and he raced from four, I’d say. So I got a Pee Wee 50 off them and I started racing.

You weren’t doing the footy or soccer thing, it was just bikes?

I think I played basketball and touch footy in school, but I sucked. I’m just terrible at ball sports. At six I started racing motocross and I think in my first race I had a leather jacket and a set of gumboots on.

So you were racing straight away?

Yeah, I got the bike and I think it was only a month or two till I went to the first club day. That’s what you did; you went racing. I think it was Cessnock and then Lakes, and then I think even Raymond Terrace used to have club days and then eventually Maitland.

You can’t stay on a Pee Wee for long. What was the next serious bike for you?

KX60s. Always had second-hand stuff and just did club-level races for a long time. I think I did state titles when I was eight or nine on a 60 and as soon as I could ride the next bike up I was on it. I went onto Honda and rode CR80s. They weren’t 85s then they were 80s — we’re old [laughs].

Then I started racing enduro. I think you had to be 12 to race state enduro at that stage but whatever was the youngest age you could be was when I started racing enduro. I liked enduro because it was it was different terrains and different areas and we weren’t going to the same motocross track every week. And I just liked riding my bike, so to travel six or seven hours across the state to go to a state motocross or a club day, you’d get at most three 10-minute motos and practice over a full weekend. Whereas I’d go to a junior enduro and do six-hour days and I’d put 12 hours on my bike over two days, so at least I was riding as much as I was driving.

What sort of support were you getting?

We had nothing at this stage. It was just Mum and Dad and me and no real help. By the time I was about 12 we bought my first brand-new bike, which was an 82cc when the CR85s first came out, which I think was 2002, and I got support off Fraser Motorcycles in Newcastle. By support I mean it was probably five per cent off and a free sticker, so it wasn’t really a sponsorship deal by any means. A guy by the name of Anthony Fenwick, he owned a bit of a surf/moto/skate shop out at Anna Bay, was my first sponsor and probably one of my best sponsors right through until I got onto teams. I think the first stuff he got me was Jetpilot and whatever he couldn’t hustle me for free he got me at staff prices.

Who were the riders you looked up to back when you were still doing moto and enduro?

I was still racing motocross right till I was 16. I got third in the state motocross titles when I was 14 or 15 but at the same time I was winning state enduro stuff and I also won the Amcross series that year. I did two-and-a-half years of Amcross which sort of crossed over (moto and enduro) but is more offroad with the grass tracks. And we’d go and do one day’s racing and get three ten-minute or 15-minute motos, whatever, so good value for money and good racing.

I’m not really sure who I looked up to. Chad Reed is Chad Reed, and everyone sort of looked up to him. It was always cool to go to a club day