Ben Watson is eighteen years old and the younger brother of former factory Husqvarna rider (and now works KTM Enduro racer) Nathan. In 2015 he was the youngest athlete to enter the FIM Motocross World Championship with the Hitachi Construction Machinery Revo KTM squad and made his debut as a full-time MX2 competitor with just seventeen years on the clock. Adam Sterry, nineteen, stands on the same precipice in 2016 but has had the benefit of frequent wild-card appearances last season, in both MX2 and MXGP no less and turned many heads with eighth place overall in his very first Grand Prix in Argentina.

Ben and Adam are friends. But for how long? Both Brits are hoping to tread in the ruts left by the likes of Stephen Sword, Carl Nunn, Billy Mackenzie, Shaun Simpson, Tommy Searle and Max Anstie; all Grand Prix winners from the same island. Pressure to progress, to shine, post results and keep healthy, learn about their bodies, bikes and bar-bashing and remain afloat in the narrowing and elitist world of Grand Prix where decent contracts and self-promotion are the solid keys to a satisfactory career as a Pro racer. All the while maintaining the ambition to beat each other and all around them.

They both boast EMX250 European Championship race victories on their CVs (Watson making the GP jump when he would have been considered a sure-fire contender for the ’15 EMX crown), a series that is regarded as the final stepping-stone and ‘finishing school’ for MXGP. Sterry was one of the protagonists in that 2015 campaign but was too frequent with his variance between spoils and spills as Watson found points in twenty-three motos and in all but one round in which he contested.

What to expect…

Watson: “It was around about this time [November] last year that I found out I would be in Qatar. When I think back to how I felt about Grand Prix compared to now then it is totally different. At the beginning I was nervous and didn’t know what was coming; Qatar was just my second GP. The first one had been Valkenswaard [2014] but we had some problems and it didn’t go well. I didn’t take much from it so Qatar felt like the ‘first one’. I guess I feel just so much more ready for ‘16.”

Sterry: “When we looked at the plan for 2016 recently it seemed like it was weekend-weekend-weekend of racing with hardly any break! We were like ‘wow!’. The first flyaways in Grand Prix are already a serious amount of travelling and I think that will be one of the most difficult parts of doing the world championship. That’s why it was critical to do the final 2015 rounds in Mexico and USA last year. Mexico was at altitude and I’ve never ridden in conditions like that before. It was a surprise; I thought it would affect me…but not that much! I was out of breath quite easily, and the bike was so slow. In Glen Helen I hadn’t ridden in heat like that. I’m training with Liverpool University now, close to home, which is a change for me, and good guides and facilities for areas like nutrition and so on.”

Watson: “I didn’t really think about being the youngest rider. I just went there to get on with it. I had a good start and then a massive crash! I was having problems due to that crash up until the end of the season. I didn’t really know what I was getting into with MX2 this year and it was hard to have expectations. Hurting myself at the first round was a setback and we had the Thai Grand Prix a week later. I didn’t know if I could ride but went there…and it was crazy-hot! Another new experience.”

Sterry: “There are a lot of different tracks and even some different time zones but I believe I can do it.

Getting a handle on Grand Prix…

Sterry: “It was kinda difficult to mix British Championship. Euros and MXGP because you might get a top ten in a Grand Prix and feel happy with what you’d done but then go to the Europeans expecting to win because of where you were in MX2 and it didn’t happen. People underestimate EMX250. The front-runners of that class can run top ten in GPs. People might think they are not that fast but it is a tough category and it is a lot closer from first to last than it is in Grand Prix. If you go down at the start of a European moto then it is so difficult to get back. It is in GPs as well but it tends to tail-off there because there are not as many riders. I wasn’t happy with some of the races I did in 2015 but having those different challenges did help me….”

Read the rest of the story in the latest issue of OTOR HERE