We caught up with the Matt Gardiners MX KTM Race Team to ask them a few questions about how they're feeling for this race season and near future aspirations in the 2021 Revo ACU British Motocross Championship.

The team officially includes the likes of:

Big Wheel 85cc

Ben Mustoe #163

Charlie Richmond #30

Small Wheel 85cc

Freddie Gardiner #15

Gus Mustoe #361

65cc

Olly Walters #55

Auto 50cc

Jett Gardiner #14

A profile of each of the riders.

Ben Mustoe – 2021 will be Ben’s last year in the Big Wheel 85cc class and we all know he is going to be a contender for some British titles. For the past few years, we have not seen Ben's true potential due to injuries. But he has a good training program in place and is ready to take on 2021.

Charlie Richmond – In 2020 Charlie only did a few selected rounds but when he showed up he was always the fastest CARROT on the track and it was only his first year on the 85cc. 2021 Charlie has opted to go up to the Big Wheel 85cc class a year early - this will only bring him on more and it won’t be long before he is mixing it up with some of the front runners.

Freddie Gardiner – Freddie struggled a little in his first year on the 85cc but as he gets a bit bigger and stronger, he will find his confidence and by the start of the 2021 season we think he will be ready to be back where he wants to be ‘Battling for race Wins’

Gus Mustoe – Gus wanted to go up to the Big Wheel 85cc class, but we kept him down on the SW 85cc as we know he has the strength to do some winning in 2021. Watch out for the GOOSE.

Olly Waters – We hope we will be able to offer Olly the support and guidance in his first year doing national-level racing in the 65cc class. It will be tough to start but I know from watching Olly at club meetings he has it and will be able to step it up to compete with the best 65cc riders in the UK. Alongside the ACU British Youth Championship Olly will also be doing the Bridgestone British Masters.

Jett Gardiner – AKA Jeffrey, his first year on the auto didn’t go to plan only having 1 round in the mud at Little Silver. Everyone is excited to watch how this little man will get on in 2021.

Before we get to know more about the boys' futures, we had some questions for Matt regarding the team.

Our first question to Matt was "what was your motivation for starting a team? was there anything in particular that inspired you?"

“At the start of 2020, my eldest Freddie was asked to be part of the Judd Racing KTM UK Team.

But the season didn’t get going and nearer the end of the year, we were told KTM UK was pulling the youth budget for 2021.

I knew how much effort Freddie had put into his riding over the last few years to get to this point and to hear KTM UK was not going to carry on with the support made Freddie and myself feel a bit deflated.

At the end of the day, this is our hobby and when you see the biggest brand names not wanting to put money back into the grassroots it makes you think should we start playing football…

Don’t be silly - We will start our own team!

As a family, we are already involved full-time with motocross. Running the mail-order company Matt Gardiner MX plus being away racing 50 weekends of the year means not much more work to start a team ”

Considering we missed near enough the whole MX season last year we expect the teams to be hyped up for this season that's exactly what the Matt Gardiner team is thinking.

We next asked Matt what championships and events he was most excited about for his team.

“All 6 riders will contest in the ACU British Youth Championship and our 85cc riders will also be contesting in the MX Nationals. The UK’s two highest-level series.

Our main focus is the ACU British Youth Championship, this is the Championship as a youth rider you want to look back and say I won that.

You know when your signed up to race a UK Premier series you are going to get to ride the best tracks around the UK. One that stands out for me is Desert Martin in Northern Ireland. That track even as a spectator is mega to watch”

That being said we asked Matt what he thought the biggest challenges he would face this year would be, his response was reasonable considering the circumstances 2020 has left us with.

“Fitting everything in!

When we do get to start riding again it’s going to be full-on. We all have to catch up on our winter training/bike preparation then jumping straight into the 2 Championship series.

You have to remember kids have also missed a lot of school over the past year so you don’t have any weekdays available as you could normally have”

Which I think hits home for almost everyone in the motocross community with the lack of practice and events. It is going to make the first event especially hard.

Onto the questions, we asked the team

Our first question to the team was why they decided to start riding.

Throughout all their responses they shared the theme of family and how their parents, brother, or sister have inspired them.

Charlie: My Dad and Grandad both had road bikes, so I showed an interest in all bikes from a very early age (1)

I started riding an Oset at 3 years old.

Jett: Wanted to be like my brother Freddie, he looked so cool when he was on his Auto.

Gus: Watching MX videos and seeing my Brother and Dad ride.

They gave us some fun responses to this next question "which pr riders compound would you like to be invited to for the day and why?"

Jett: Travis Pastrana (Pastrana Land) but I would need more than one day.

Charlie: Jorge Prado because I love how he rides, and he is a big inspiration to me being a world champion at such a young age.

Ollie: Aldon Baker (The Bakers Factory) He makes Champions

Gus: Deegans Compound because it looks lit

We had some questions to ask the team and coach Matt about the future.

We asked the kids "What are your biggest aspirations for your MX career? This could be in 5 months or 10 years."

Charlie: I want to have a go at the EMX 85 in the next few years and would love to be able to ride GP's when I am older if I can make it.

Ben: Would like to be British Champion as a youth rider then as I progress to do the same as an adult rider

Freddie: I would love to be able to travel and ride / race in Europe and the US.

Olly: To podium some nationals this year

All of which we think the team can achieve. We asked Matt what the future entails for the team.

“Too early to say but, I think as long as my two boys are riding, I want to be involved with helping them and, I get to help some other riders along the way.

When we are allowed to, we will be going over to Belgium / Holland to ride and yes maybe do some racing over there in the next few years”

It all sounds exciting for the team this season. We're excited to see what they bring to the table.