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Tadious Manyepo
Sports Reporter
FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD England-based Zimbabwean motocross rider Tyler Mabika has set his sights on moving to the more financially-rewarding British Superbikes.

The young ace has been flying high the country’s flag in the European country, riding in the 85cc Class where he has won several medals. But, he has decided to move on the ascendancy with his father and trainer, Artwell, revealing yesterday that he will accompany his son to Zimbabwe next month where the journey will start with rigorous training at the iconic Donnybrook Park Raceway in Harare.

The team will spend at least a month of meticulous practice before Tyler can move to the next stage.

“We have started doing road racing now from motocross and Tyler has been doing very well.  “We are coming to Zimbabwe early next month where we would practice for at least four weeks at the Donnybrook track,” said Artwell, who was speaking from his base in Birmingham, England, yesterday.

“I got his (Tyler’s) bikes in Zimbabwe right now. As we are talking, the bikes are already in Zimbabwe as well as his kits. Of course, we will buy some stuff here which we will also bring to Zimbabwe.”

Artwell said their motivation for orientating the teenage racer at the Donnybrook track was because the venue offers an ideal conditioning practice. “We are training because next year Tyler will be doing Moto-3 and British Superbikes. It’s a very tough championship that’s why we will practice in Zimbabwe for a month because the tracks there are just suitable.

“This side (Europe) practice tracks are very small so I want him to get used to big tracks so he can become conditioned for that. Then hopefully next year we will get into the British Superbikes (Moto-3).

The good thing is Tyler is a very confident boy on the bike and he is a good rider too. His motocross background has made him a better rider. He is doing very well in this regard, he is very fast, so you see the more practice we do in Zimbabwe, the better he becomes so certainly we are coming to Zimbabwe (on August 2).”

Artwell said Tyler will also practice using the 1 000cc Superbike because he wants him to develop fast.

“We also want him to start riding the 1 000cc so that he becomes used to that.

“We have actually moved to road racing. There is no turning back. We want to see where we can go. From Moto-3, he will then move to Moto-2 before we can go to the elite Superbikes… There’s no stopping us.

“They say only the sky is the limit, but we are looking beyond the sky!!’’, Artwell said.