Amelia proves her endurance

Amelia Radford earlier this year proved she can ride her 350EXC KTM for hours when she completed the Indee 500 endurance race.

And while it’s not often that she has tried her hand at regular motocross rounds, this year Radford thought she’d give it a crack.

It was a decision that paid off for the 20-year-old rider, when she was crowned runner-up in the women’s motocross division for the Port Hedland Motorcycle Club.

“I wasn’t expecting it at all, ” she said. “I knew there were a fair few girls who would be in the running, but I didn’t think I’d get a look in.”

Radford took part in three of the five race rounds for the season, scoring herself enough points to come second, behind a Wickham rider.

She said what she enjoyed most about taking part in events with her bike was showing the boys how it was done.

“I’m just out there having so much fun and seeing the looks on the boys’ faces when you succeed is great, ” he said.

Radford said she always liked to push younger girls to try their hardest and pursue their motocross and endurance dreams if they had the talent and the passion.

Radford was born to race and while she has had a positive year, her family are no strangers to the dangers of riding, with both Radford’s sister Michaela and partner Aaron suffering serious injuries from crashes in the past 12 months.

“My younger sister broke her back on a bike this year, ” she said.

“My partner also had a pretty bad crash at the start of the year, fracturing his back, and (was) in a back brace for six weeks.”

Radford said while it was a dangerous sport at times, she said her family were realists and always did everything within their capabilities to protect themselves when taking part in events. She said without the safety gear her sister and partner were wearing, the story could have been a different one.