鈥淭his year has seen me only compete in the National Championships with the Bridgestone British Masters and the Nora British Cup 鈥� my main focus after the Nora Pro Championship was cancelled after one round.

鈥淭he third round of the Bridgestone British Masters took place at Hawkstone Park. As always, the track proved to be one of the toughest in the UK, and attracted full gates across all the groups which is great to see.

鈥淚 qualified 22nd, but the 10 places in front of me were covered by less than five seconds and I felt that I could improve in the race. My focus was on trying to minimise mistakes as this track can really catch you out but my main problem over the weekend was trying to get out of the gate well on the concrete start.

鈥淩ace 1 saw probably the best start of the weekend, but then a rider went down in front of me which cost me few places, I worked my way through eventually finishing 20th.

鈥淩ace 2 – didn鈥檛 get a great start which gave me some work to do, not as easy in this group as so many riders are running lap times similar to one another. I kept making time up but then made mistakes undoing the good work which was frustrating, finishing 23rd.

鈥淚n Race 3, I got a start in the top 15, but lost the front end on the first lap tangling with another rider who ended up on top of me, leaving me dead last. I felt I then rode pretty well, making up 11 places to finish 25th.

鈥淩ace 4 – worst start of the weekend, lighting up the rear tyre on the concrete start. My riding got stronger as the race went on, finishing 20th, but closing quickly on the four in front of me. I just needed another two or three laps as my fitness was really good and felt strong at the end of the race.

鈥淥verall, finished 22nd. Although fairly happy with this in a strong field, I felt that if I could have got a bit of better start in each race I could have finished a few places higher. That leaves me currently 15th in championship.

鈥淛une also saw the second round of the Nora British Cup, held at Culham MX following the first round at Landrake in Cornwall. I am competing in the adult Expert Class against a strong line-up, most of who are on 450s. All four races across the weekend produced a number of battles within each race, making for some close racing, apart from race 3 where I lost the front end coming out of a corner and had no chance of making the time back. I finished 11th, 11th, 11th and 10th over the weekend, for 9th overall and took home 拢15!! This has left me 6th in the championship overall and now looking forward to the final round at Marshfield in August.

鈥淢assive thanks to EBC for providing the stopping power for my FC250.鈥�

鈥淭he bank holidays in May brought around the annual Nora British Cup at Marshfield, followed by the UK Master Kids at Cusses Gorse where I defended my title won in 2022.

鈥淭he Nora Cup saw some tightly contested racing over two days, and I finished in a respectable 5th overall in a strong field.

鈥淢oving on to Master Kids, I started well, finishing 2nd and 3rd in first two races, but then leading race three, my rear hub failed resulting in finishing last having to push it over the line! I then went on to win the next three races which gave me a second overall which I was happy with given the bike鈥檚 failure.

鈥淚n the Bridgestone British Masters, Round 3 was held at Monster Mountain in Wales where I rode well all weekend 鈥� I just needed a couple of better starts and hit the start gate in one race so had to come from dead last, finishing 9th overall for the championship across the weekend.

鈥淭his was followed by Round 4 at Culham MX Park, a wet Culham! Again, my pace was really good but crashed in three out of the four races eventually finishing 10th overall for the championship. I currently sit 10th but with two rounds to go, can hopefully pick up a couple more places.

鈥淚n the Cotswold Youth MX Championship, I have completed 9 rounds so far, winning 8 of them and taking a third in the other. I am currently leading the championship with next round scheduled at Monster Mountain in August where I will hope to cement my lead.

鈥淢y next update will be in September after the final two rounds of the Bridgestone British Masters.鈥�

鈥淢y goal coming into MX Master Kids was to better my seventh-position overall result last year, and I really wanted to get onto the podium,鈥� Bethell explains. 鈥淪ome issues early on meant I qualified in 18^th, meaning I really had my work cut out.鈥�

Thanks to some seriously impressive riding, Bethell was able to battle the likes of Tom Butler and Benny Bradley across the weekend, eventually pipping the competition to the post.

鈥淭o be a champion at MX Master Kids is a pretty big achievement for me, and I鈥檓 quite proud to be a champion at a big event like this and it definitely feels good, Bethell continues. 鈥淎s long as the dates work for me, I will 100% be back in 2023.鈥�