Elliott Banks-Browne: 'I’m hungry to race…'

Here’s a question for all you motocross fact fans out there.
Who was the last rider to win a 450 moto in the ACU British championship? The answer is, of course, Elliott Banks-Browne although he’s kept such a low profile for the last couple of years – not always through choice – that you’d be forgiven for not remembering.
How his 2019 season went down was definitely not by choice. Injured at the start of the year, EBB came back strongly and after signing off with a win at Landrake everything was looking rosy. During the off-season he switched from Husqvarna to Honda with the full support of his long-time sponsor Paul Mason from Geartec and it was all systems go for the two-time British MX2 champ.
Then the opening round of the ACU British championship at Little Silver was cancelled with the first COVID-19 lockdown following close behind…
“I was fully geared up to get going,” said Elliott. “I felt good, we had a really good bike with the Honda and I was very happy with the set-up and then the first race didn’t happen.
“I’ve got a baby so I spent a bit of time with the family and was just waiting and waiting and waiting to see what would happen with racing. After the British championship was cancelled just to go and race four rounds of the MX Nationals seemed mad – especially when we didn’t really know what was happening all the way through.
“It was so up in the air in the end we figured that the British championship was done and it wasn’t worth getting ready for four races. That’s the choice we made.”
The good news is that the 30-year-old’s still got the fire in his belly and is confident that his inactivity won’t have set him back too much.
“For the last two years I’ve hardly raced but I don’t feel I’m done at all. At the end of last year I felt good and I won the last British championship race of the season and I went into this season feeling good and I still feel good.
“It sounds weird but I don’t have to ride a bike much to feel good on one. I don’t seem to lose my speed all that much whereas some people need to ride lots. I don’t feel that I need to do that for some reason. Obviously, my fitness will be down but I don’t feel like I’ve lost out by not racing this year really.
“All our plans are to go racing next year. We’re in the process of going forward with everything – at the moment we’re making sure we can fund it and getting the sponsorship in place but it’s tough for everyone. Paul pretty much funds the whole thing but we still need help.
“I’m hungry to race and as long as I’ve got a hunger in me and Paul still wants to do it we’re going to go racing.”