Teenage Carlisle bike racer Ben Watson is continuing to impress in the British Mini Bike Road Racing Championship.

Ben, 13, enjoyed success at Whilton Mill in Northamptonshire at the weekend and currently sits second in the overall standings.

And the teenager, who is supported by John Cook Signs, has enjoyed a pretty rapid rise, having started racing in the British Championships last September.

His father said: “He is second in the overall standings and he normally finishes on the podium – provided he stays on the bike!

“He won his first race of the summer season. They do a winter season and things didn’t go very well.

“But he won his first race of the summer season and has gone on from there. He was also in the top two or three in a couple of other races, but he crashed out of them. He is only 13, so he is learning still.”

There is a fair amount of travelling for Ben, though, to allow him to compete in the British Championship.

“Two are 10-hour journeys to get there. I think that’s what puts a lot of people off motorsport in this area – the travelling. With Ben doing well, we have sort of continued to do it,” his dad said. “It is basically at national rally tracks. The next race is at Rowrah [next month] in west Cumbria which is as local as it gets for us. We do a fair bit of commuting.”

But Ben is following his dad’s example.

Dad Scott said: “I’m a motorcyclist, and Ben has always been very keen on bikes. He wanted a mini Moto when he was very young. He has always been focused on it and wanted to do it for a living. It’s been a real sort of roller-coaster, but mostly an upwards one.”