Jenny geared up for British championship tilt (From Stroud News and Journal)

Jenny geared up for British championship tilt

FLYING Quad bike racer Jenny Young, from Bournes End near Bisley, is warming up for a televised tilt at the British Quad Bikes championship this year.

The 18-year-old Downfield School sixth-former, who is also set to take her A levels in maths, chemistry and biology this summer, took part in her first major competition of the year recently, when, paired with Dutch girl Natasja Haesendockx, she finished 67th out of 240 entries for the prestigious Enduro du Touquet, one of Europe's biggest quad bike events.

After qualifying in 51st place Jenny and Natasha took it in turns to ride their VLS 300 TM machine supplied by manufacturers VLS on the daunting six-kilometre course along the beach at Le Touquet and she was more than happy to finish so high in a top-quality field of experienced riders.

Jenny, who is now rated as the leading girl racer in the country, has been riding quad bikes since she was three and competing seriously for the past five years, since forsaking her other major sporting love of riding, in which she was a former member of the England under 21 dressage training squad.

A member of the Vale of White Horse Motocross Club in Oxfordshire, Jenny has enjoyed plenty of success at club level and made a real breakthrough last summer when she won the Mid-Hants 250 championships and the ORPA British Challenge at Bletchingdon, Oxon last July when she was the only girl in a field of 32 experienced make riders and showed them a clean pair of heels to win.

However, this year she is looking to step up to an even bigger stage having qualified to race in the British Quad Bike Championships involving nine rounds staged all over the country, with three races in each round.

The championships begin in Devon on March 30 and Jenny will be on board her usual bike a VLS 250 Rotax for the series which features prominently on Sky Sport who cover every round.

VLS have also invited her to compete in a prestige 12-hour Enduro event in Canada in May, but unfortunately she had to decline the invitation because it clashes with her school A level exams.