Home Town : Edinburgh and Scoraig

Age : 29

No. of years racing : 8

Current Machine : Suzuki RMX 250

1st race : May 1992, Craik Forest, Hawick

Result : 1st Place, Sportsman class

Best Scottish Championship result : Craik Forest 1997, 2nd place Expert

Class (closely beaten by 5 seconds in last  special test by fellow ISDE 1999 team member Derek Little)

I grew up on Scoraig, a remote roadless peninsula near Ullapool in the Highlands, which provided the ideal surroundings for me to get the feel for being on a offroad bike.

My interest in bikes started when my older brother Tommy got a Malagutti 50cc which kept on breaking down. He would abandon it, I would fix it, and then muck around with it until he decided he wanted it back again.

My first bike was a Suzuki TS 250cc which I built up out of parts when I was 14 and by then, I was already hooked.

Having spent my childhood and teenage years messing about on the hills and tracks of Scoraig, it was not to difficult to transfer what I had learnt at home to the forests and ditches of the average Scottish enduro course.

My first endure in 1992 was the only one I did that year but I gradually discovered that it was in enduro, not in motocross, that I was more interested and able. I found that the skills and stamina required for an enduro course were what excited me most, as well as the variety of terrain involved. I think this is partly what enabled me to move quite quickly up through the classes, into the Expert Class.

I'm really pleased to be part of the ISDE '99 Scottish team, especially since I have only recently returned to the sport after a year off due to a serious knee injury, for which I had 3 operations.

I find that participating in this kind of sport adds a vital dimension to my life. I need to do this very physically tough sport in order to feel like I'm really living. It keeps me on my toes and is the perfect outlet for the highly competitive side of my character.