A SOUTH Lakeland motocross rider has won the AMCA Northern area MX1 motocross championship in a hard fought battle over five rounds .

Luke Robinson, of Old Hutton, picked up the top award at a presentation at the Park Royal hotel in Manchester.

21-year-old Luke didn’t compete in his first motocross race until he was 16, which ideally should have been 10 years earlier.

Luke will now go forward to compete in the AMCA British championship. Alongside his cousin Gary Jones, who hopes to compete in the AMCA British veterans championship which runs alongside the mx1 Expert championship.

Mr Robinson's dad, Matthew, said: "Motocross is not for the faint hearted, fuelled by fear, excitement and danger the heart rate during races can reach up to 97 per cent of the heart's capacity up to 200 bpm for up to 20-30 minutes.

"Many riders suffer from arm pump which is a build up of lactic acid in the forearms but you need to keep the throttle wide open hitting obstacles, such as 90ft jumps, or you may lose positions.

"A motocross rider needs many hours a week in a tough fitness program. Luke does this on his bike and down at the Westmorland cross fit gym. He finds it difficult to spend enough time in the gym as he works long hours on the family dairy farm, sometimes getting up at 5am to feed and milk the cows before heading off down the motorway to the races.

"Motocross has evolved from motorcycle scrambling. It became very popular in America with the jumps getting bigger and now is more commonly known as motocross."