There are riders who have been fighting for years for a top position in the championship of the ADAC MX Junior Cup, and then there are competitors like Cameron Dürow who join the rookies, aged 13, and immediately finish in the Top Five. Quick, confident, certain of victory - the South African knows no compromise when it comes to his motocross career. And he's working hard as a rookie in the ADAC MX Junior Cup to progress his career this year.

And with success. Cameron secured his first race win in only the second meeting of the ADAC MX Masters in Möggers, Austria, and since then, the schoolboy from Pietermaritzburg has been training even harder to repeat the experience. "The ADAC MX Junior Cup is an outstanding series, in which some of the best motocross riders in the world compete. I'm particularly pleased that I'm improving with every meeting, as the better riders spur me on and make me simply open the throttle wider. And that's my goal in a nutshell: I expect to continually improve my performance," said the teenager, explaining what lies behind his fine results.

The 13-year-old is not unknown in his native South Africa, since he regularly finishes in the points in national championships. 2010 was the year that Mr and Mrs Dürow's middle child first stood on the top rung of the podium in a regional championship. He caused a stir one year later by winning a race in the national South African championships on his 50cc bike. Cameron moved up to a 65cc machine in 2012. The wee laddie with the mop of blonde hair placed third overall in the African MX championship and finished runner-up in the national South African championship in 2013. The teenager now rides an 85cc engine and has had sporadic outings in world championship races ever since 2014, battling for wins in his class. To do that, Cameron travelled, for example, to Spain in 2015, while in the previous year, the young MX talent lined up alongside his peers in the world championship fixture in Belgium.

Anyway, the young South African, who has been riding motocross since the age of four, has been spending quite a lot of time in aeroplanes for some three years now, trying to compete in many races as possible outside of his homeland. "The ADAC MX Junior Cup and the world championship are my top priority. There are only 20 riders in my class in the whole of South Africa, and not many of them are very quick. That really does not help me progress. In the ADAC, though, I'm up against 40 competitors, who are all equally fast, so that I can gain a lot of experience in the racing series," said the KTM rider. And Cameron is pursuing his own strategy as far as that goes: "I set my suspension harder than the others, so that I can jump faster. Plus, I try not to let the others make me nervous and don't think about the competition when I'm contesting a race in the ADAC MX Junior Cup."

The teenager, who prefers to spend his free time in the gym or on his mountain bike, would describe himself basically as a calm and relaxed person. However, mention motocross, and his eyes light up. He has a real passion for the sport. "I love motocross, because it makes me feel free, and I can leave my everyday life behind for a while. I'm in the moment and at one with my bike and can enjoy the rush of adrenaline when I jump or whenever I'm just out on track," said Cameron, telling us about his keen interest in the sport. His father Leon (44) is by his side for every race, while his mum, Wendy (39) and his two siblings Tristan (8) and Hannah (15) cheer him on from home in South Africa.