TOMMY Wright was the best ten-year-old motocross rider in Britain two years ago. Now the daring little kid from Bitterne has just swept the board in the national under-12 age group.

Young Tom (pictured left) has had a superb season winning all the major British competitions.

Some of the all-time greats of scrambling like Dave Thorpe started out by winning the All-British Trophy and Wright put his name on that same coveted piece of silverware in Gloucester where he won five races out of five.

That was a one-off event raced over the weekend but Wright has proved his durability over a season by riding off with the BSMA Best of British Championship in which he won the grand final in devastating fashion.

Just to qualify for the final, Wright, who is a member of the Portsmouth Schoolboy Scramble Club, had to negotiate six races at club level then the south region semi-final which he won.

In the grand final, raced on the Grand Prix circuit at Culham near Oxford, he incredibly won all six races, one after a brush with the second-placed rider had pushed him back to tenth. He gritted his teeth and battled through the field to take a remarkable victory.

The Best of British Championship is raced through the season at different venues and Wright, aboard his 80cc Kawasaki, started unspectacularly by his standards with a fifth place in the first round.

But he progressively got better, picking up three second places and two firsts to win the crown. He won the equivalent championship for 60cc machines two years ago.

His most emphatic victory in the Best of British series came in the last round at Severn Valley in which he swapped his Kawasaki for a YZ 80 Yamaha. Significantly he will be riding Yamahas in next year's series. He's still young enough to do another in the 80cc category and potential sponsors have been queuing up to support the youngster, realising he's most definitely one for the future.

The new bike for next year comes courtesy of Steve Dixon, manager of Yamaha Off Road, complete with back-up from Poole Yamaha who will provide the youngster with full racing kit. His race engineer and mentor will be Howard Toomes, a former expert racer who used to look after top riders James Marsh and Jeremy Whatley and put the likes of Dixon in the picture as to the young man's potential.

Animal Suzuki, based in Oxford, also courted his services but he's gone for Yamaha because of more local connections.

Having scooped everything in his age group, the big question is whether Wright will have the motivation to go out and do it all over again, or whether he'll look to extend himself against stronger opposition.

His dad Graham says he may explore the possibility of racing in the Netherlands and Belgium, Europe's breeding ground for world-class motocross riders.

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