Adam Phipps revved up and ready to cash in

The teenager, from Highley, struggled to replicate his pre-season form during the long championship campaign.

But having turned 15, and after developing his own GCSE training programme at Lacon Childe School, in Cleobury Mortimer, he will return to the 2017 series fitter and stronger than ever.

Adam's father, Chris, said: "We are going back to the KTM championship again – but with a bit of a change.

"The series has opened up its age limit, which means anyone up to the age of 22 can now take part, so it's no longer called the KTM Junior Cup, just the British KTM Cup.

"We have a new sponsor on board, which is Factory Plant Associates (FPA), based in Halesowen."

Chris admits 2016 was a 'really funny one' for his son, but believes with a bit of luck and a few early wins the new year could be a fruitful.

"He started off second fastest and then qualified third for the first race but then he went backwards really," he said.

"A couple of bad crashes, one really bad one involving his team-mate, knocked his confidence a bit.

"The first four rounds were also wet, which didn't help.

"During pre-season testing he was the fastest out there and we could not work out what happened.

"But he started getting on with the bike towards the end of the season.

"Last year, he was also learning the tracks but this time he knows the circuits and has had another year on the bike.

"He's also that little bit older, which will help because he was struggling for fitness in some of the races, especially getting tired towards the end when pushing hard."

Chris said the team wanted to make amends for last year and admitted everyone had felt the added pressure of riding for a sponsor for the first time.

But an old-fashioned cash-for-performances offer, from father to son, had also ended up paying dividends.

"The sponsor worries were partly my fault because we both felt like we had to perform. Everyone got a little bit stressed," he said.

"There's going to be a lot of riders this year, somewhere in the mid-20s at least.

"The series has grown every year since it was launched two years ago.I also started doing what I did when he was younger, saying ' if you finish in the top 10 I'll give you a tenner.

"Any higher position is an extra fiver'. That seemed to work again.

"He qualified in fourth at Donington in the wet and we were thinking 'what has happened here?'.

"Something just clicked and it was a completely different weekend to the others, so it's obviously a bit of a mental thing there too.

"Adam is sitting his GCSEs, which includes PE and means he can set out his own training programmes, and he's been working on stuff at home.

"He's also been out on the Super Moto bike to keep a feel for the bike and we hope to out on the KTM machine this month.

"The first round then take place at Donington in March.

"It's a good place to have the first round for Adam because he knows it well and has had some good results there.

"If he gets a good start we all know he can then kick on."