Cadders Hill, lyng

What advice would you give to someone who is
interested in becoming involved in the sport of
motocross?
My advice to anyone wants to get involved with mx,
would be it’s all out there on social media, search it
out, get to a local race meeting/practice and check the
sport out live. As there’s nothing like live. Tv is great,
but watching live it a totally different experience, get
the smell, the atmosphere, the noise. And hopefully
people take the sport up, I did for instance after
watching my cousin race mx.
What do you believe is the most important factor
in the growth and success of motocross as a
sport?
I think to engage with the kids, who are the future of
the sport. Like I touched on before, you need to
appeal to these kids, who are on all the gadgets
known to man kind.
Any media of mx is great, lots do it now on social
media and platforms, so this all helps, as videos and
images can all look cool and appeal to youngsters.
And as I touched on earlier too, I think trying to get
trendy brands into mx would be another great way of
getting attention to the sport.
Can you share with us some of the memorable
moments or experiences you've had in motocross?
Memorable moments in the sport, would be creating
my platform and unknowingly bringing riders/fans back
together was great. Then even better creating a mx
reunion was all a follow on from that. A total pipe
dream to a reality was very surreal, and amazing to do,
we are even onto our 3rd Motocross & Speedway
Memories Reunion at the end of this month.
What are your goals for the future of motocross,
and how do you see your role as an ambassador
contributing to those goals?
I engage with the fans of mx & speedway every single
day, and sometimes to my detriment haha I reply to
every single message I get.
It’s just me, and I feel no matter what it’s about, you
try and help them, or talk about whatever the subject
is, I have made a lot of personal relationships with so
many race fans, and haven’t met 90% of them, that
I’ve likely spoken to for years, riders included.
I try to live by my dads quote he always told me
before he died back in 2015, “It’s nice to be important,
but it’s important to be nice” I even quote this about
my dad, at the end of every single interview I’ve done.
I’ve even had a logo made of it by a great lad in Pat
Stott designs. He also created my logo for my
platform too, super cool!
Did you ever ride? If so what are your best
achievements/ favourite memories etc.
Yes I raced mx, I was meant to be a speedway rider
really after my dad David Ashby & my Uncle Martin
Ashby. They both raced for my home town Swindon
Robins. I had a go at 16 and took to it straight away,
and they wanted me to sign a pro contract, but my
mum said over her dead body haha and she was the
secretary to the stadium owner. So that ended that. I
went to mx again at the weekend and won. It’s still a
regret to this day. But my parents decided no at the
time.
We finally won the BSMA finals title in 1998 in the
Expert/Amx class on 125cc, and amazing to have my
name on the trophy and a guess a british title to my
name with some of the greats that are on that trophy
was a dream.
It’s 29/30th April at Whiteway Barton in Devon, and if
anyone wants to ride or come down contact me. We
have a-lot of reminiscing to do, and of course making
cool new memories too.
Meeting my own hero’s and idols as been crazy, even
get help from them with contacts and meeting them,
has been a dream.
Racing from 1989-2000 with my dad as my mechanic
are special memories to savour for sure, even more so I
don’t have him with me. My mum was amazing as well,
she did all the lap scoring jobs, and marshalling over the
years, and washing all the kits haha forever grateful to
my parents for helping race bikes.