Eddie takes World 85cc title
By Sean Lawless on 2nd Aug 17
Britain has a new motocross world champion!
Eddie Jay Wade ran 1-1 at the 2017 FIM Junior Motocross World Championship at Lange Motokeskus in Estonia over the weekend to claim the 85cc title.
The victory was all the more remarkable given that the 13-year-old, who's based in Spain for most of the year, spends the majority of his time racing hardpack and his win came in deep sand.
"The weekend went perfectly," he said, "taking pole and then winning the first race under constant pressure. In the second I had to fight for position on the first couple of laps and then stretched my lead to 12 seconds at the finish line. It was a sweet victory against the sand masters."
Eddie, who competing against older riders won a number of races in last year's Thor British Youth Nationals series, isn't attached to any team.
Instead he races bikes provided by Husqvarna Spain with backing from tuners MJW Specialists along with K-Tech, CI Sport, Rock Oil and Michelin.
He's been trained by Richard-Mike Jones' RMJ Academy since he was nine years old and had coach Ash Wilde on hand in Estonia.
"I'm pretty emotional right now to tell you the truth," admitted RMJ at Preston Docks on Sunday. "A British world champion - that's mega!
"It's not the easiest job to train someone who's based in Spain but his mum does all the logistics for my Spanish boot camp so when we go out to Spain we go to them.
"Obviously, until this year he raced two British championships so he was here all the time anyway so in the past it's been really easy. This year has been a bit more difficult but he comes here for the summer.
"He's a fantastic rider with a great family behind him who always puts in 100 per cent. I'm delighted for him."
