There are moments in Australian motocross that resonate for decades, especially lately. Chad Reed as the first Aussie to win a title in America. The Lawrence brothers and Kyle Webster winning the MXdN. Jett Lawrence becoming almost unbeatable. Those are the moments that make an entire country stop and wonder if they’re witnessing the next generation of greatness.

In July this year, another one of those moments arrived. A 13-year-old kid from Port Macquarie lined up against the best junior motocross riders on the planet at the FIM Junior World Championship in the Czech Republic. He wasn’t on a full factory European bike. He wasn’t surrounded by a massive race team. In fact, his Yamaha YZ85 was virtually identical to the one he races every weekend back home in Australia. Then Blake Bohannon went 1-1.

He came from outside the top 10, passed the fastest kids in Europe and crossed the line as Australia’s newest 85cc World Champion. The result instantly put him into rare company alongside Jay Wilson as one of only a handful of Australians to ever win the prestigious 85cc title.

But ask Blake about it now and there’s no chest beating, no talk of being the next superstar and certainly no oversized ego. Instead, there’s a softly spoken teenager who still sounds slightly surprised it actually happened. “I was kind of hoping for a podium,” Blake laughs. “I ended up winning, so I’m pretty stoked with that.”

BUILT AT HOME

Long before Europe, world championships and people comparing him to Australia’s greatest exports, there was just a young kid riding around Port Macquarie. Blake first climbed onto a motorcycle at four years old before lining up behind a starting gate at seven. It wasn’t one of those overnight success stories where everyone immediately declared him a prodigy either.

“I started riding when I was four and started racing when I was seven,” he says. “When I was probably nine or ten I started to know I had something there. I just put a lot of hard work in.”

That “hard work” has become the defining feature of the Bohannon household. Unlike many of today’s elite juniors, Blake has never been through an endless list of riding schools or specialist coaching programs. His coach has always been standing in the pits. His dad.

“I’ve never had coaching in my life,” Blake says matter-of-factly. Tim laughs because technically that’s true. The coaching has always come from him. Tim built Blake’s riding around one thing: Technique.

“From the start that’s all we focused on,” Tim explains. “We never did speed work. We still very rarely do it. We just work on technique. I reckon I’ve watched every single lap he’s ever done,” he admits.

The program

The Bohannons don’t have an extravagant race operation.  Tim and Blake simply load the Mercedes van and drive around Australia chasing races while mum, Ali, helps whenever she can. “Usually it’s just me and Blakey,” Tim says. “Sometimes Ali comes with us and we just drive around in the van.”

Home isn’t a professional training facility either. The family owns a small piece of land outside Port Macquarie where Tim has reshaped some of the tracks he rode years ago into training circuits for Blake. It’s enough to get laps done after work before the family heads south on weekends to train with faster riders around Newcastle and the Hunter Valley.

“We’re super lucky,” Tim says. “I’ve got a couple of tracks from when I was riding that I made a bit better for Blakey. Then on weekends we try to get him riding with faster kids because that’s the best thing for him.”

One of the biggest reasons experienced coaches speak so highly of Blake isn’t necessarily his speed. It’s his ability to learn. ADB’s Jeff Briggs has spent plenty of time watching Blake develop and believes that’s what separates him. There was one training session where Blake repeatedly lost time entering a rough corner after changing gears through the braking bumps.

Briggs noticed it immediately. Before he could even mention it after the moto, Blake had already fixed it himself. “He came around the next lap and changed down before the bumps,” Briggs recalled. “That’s something not a lot of kids have the ability to adjust on the fly.”

Tim sees exactly the same thing every weekend. “I only have to tell him something once,” he says. “That’s it. He just picks it up.” It’s the kind of racing IQ that’s impossible to teach.

CALM UNDER FIRE

Going into the Czech Republic, neither Blake nor his family expected to be standing on the top step of the podium. They had travelled to Europe the previous year, so they understood just how high the standard would be and how difficult the racing was. A podium was the realistic goal and even a top-five finish would have been considered an outstanding result against Europe’s best young talent.

Even Tim admits qualifying gave them a reality check. Blake was circulating around 14th fastest in practice and qualifying, which was hardly disastrous but certainly didn’t suggest a world title was only a few hours away.

“After qualifying and practice he was around about 14th, so it was a little bit of a wake-up call. But once the gate dropped, Blakey just did his thing.”

That “thing” has become something of a trademark. Blake doesn’t panic after poor starts, he doesn’t ride beyond his limits and he rarely lets emotion dictate his decisions. Instead, he chips away at riders one by one, making calculated passes rather than desperate ones, and before long he’s suddenly in contention.

That exact scenario unfolded in the Czech Republic. Despite getting good launches off the gate, Blake found himself swallowed down the straights before the first corner. The European riders had explosive acceleration and by the time they reached Turn 1, the Australian was buried deep in the pack.

“I had two good starts,” Blake recalls. “But they just gapped me on the straight. I tucked to the inside and ended up around tenth. That surprised me. I’m super calm,” he explains. “If I start rushing and start pushing too hard, I make mistakes and I end up slower. I just take my time.”

Tim wasn’t surprised by the composure, although he admits the nerves beforehand were unlike anything he’d seen. “It was the most nervous I’ve ever seen Blakey,” he says. “I honestly thought he was going to throw up.”

Once the gate dropped, however, the nerves disappeared. The pressure vanished, instinct took over and suddenly Blake was doing exactly what he’d practised thousands of times back home. When he crossed the finish line to secure the world championship, the emotion finally caught up with him.

“My brain just fogged up,” Blake says. “I was so happy I didn’t even know what happened. I was thinking about how much hard work I’d put in, how much hard work my family had put in, and everyone that helped us. To finally get it done, I was just so happy.”

The teenagers unique ability to process information while he’s riding, rather than waiting until the moto finishes is a rarity. Small mistakes are corrected immediately, new techniques are applied almost instantly and improvements happen lap after lap without needing lengthy discussions in the pits.

THE ROAD AHEAD

Winning a world championship changes everything, but it also changes nothing. The trophy sitting at home doesn’t make the next gate drop any easier, nor does it guarantee a professional career. If anything, it simply opens more doors, creates more pressure and forces a family to make decisions they probably weren’t expecting to make quite so soon.

Within days of Blake’s victory, the phone started ringing. Team managers, industry figures and people from around the world suddenly wanted to know who this quiet Australian kid was that had arrived in Europe with a relatively standard Yamaha and beaten the best juniors in the world. While Blake was soaking up becoming a world champion, Tim was suddenly trying to navigate one of the biggest decisions any motocross family can face.

“There has been a lot of interest,” Tim admits. “People were really impressed with the way he came through the pack. They were saying how calm he was and how he didn’t really make mistakes. But he’s just so young.”

It’s a situation every Australian motocross family dreams about, but few are ever prepared for. Do you stay in Australia and continue developing? Do you move to Europe and chase the GP pathway? Or do you follow the blueprint that has worked so brilliantly for the Lawrence brothers and head to America? There are no guarantees, only opinions, and Tim says everyone seems to have one.

“I’m stressed out because I just don’t want to stuff it up,” he says honestly. “I don’t want to make the wrong decision. Everyone has different opinions. Some people say go now, some say wait another year. I just take it all on board and I’m sure we’ll come up with something.”

It’s a refreshing admission because it reminds you that behind the world title is still a normal family trying to do the right thing by their son. Blake might now be one of the hottest junior prospects in the world, but he’s also still only 13 years old. He’s too young to simply pack a suitcase and move overseas on his own, which means any decision affects the entire family.

“If we do go, obviously I’ll be going with him,” Tim says. “He’s 13. It’s tricky.”

Blake’s answer, however, comes much quicker. Like almost every Australian kid who’s grown up watching Chad Reed, and the Lawrence brothers, his dream sits on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

“I’d like to go to the US,” Blake says. “I’d like to follow the Lawrence brothers’ path. I’d just like to be in America.”

That dream feels a little closer now than it did six months ago. Winning a Junior World Championship doesn’t automatically earn a factory contract, but it certainly gets people talking.

Comparisons

Blake is now being compared with the Lawrences. Tim says it would be easy for that sort of attention to change a young kid, but so far it simply hasn’t. “He’s actually really good,” Tim says. “You’d think he’d have a pretty big head, but no. He just takes it one race at a time. If something happens in the future, that’s great, but right now he’s just doing his thing.”

Blake’s own expectations are equally measured. While many people expect him to immediately dominate Australia’s MX3 Championship, his goals are considerably more realistic. Moving onto the YZ125 against older, stronger riders is another learning curve, and he’s under no illusion about the challenge ahead.

“First thing is I want to qualify,” Blake says. “Then I’d be happy with a top 10. Everyone else is on 250Fs and they’ve got an advantage, so I’d be happy with that.”

Watching Blake ride, it’s tempting to become caught up in the hype. The smooth technique, the race craft, the composure under pressure and the world title all point towards a rider with enormous potential. But motocross history is littered with junior champions who never quite made the leap to professional success. Talent alone isn’t enough.

What gives Blake Bohannon a genuine chance is everything happening away from the race track. He has a father who has spent years obsessing over technique. He has a family prepared to make sacrifices without losing sight of what matters. He has a support network that keeps him grounded, and perhaps most importantly, he still loves riding motorcycles as much as he did when he was four years old.

FAST FACTS

  • Age: 13
  • Hometown: Port Macquarie, NSW
  • Current Team: Yamaha Junior Racing Australia
  • Motorcycle: Yamaha YZ85
  • Started Riding: 4 years old
  • Started Racing: 7 years old
  • First Realised He Could Make It: Around 9–10 years old
  • Favourite Track: Maitland District MCC (“super rutty”)
  • Favourite Riders: Jett Lawrence, Hunter Lawrence and Haiden Deegan
  • Dream: Follow the Lawrence brothers’ pathway to race professionally in the United States.

THE BOHANNON FORMULA

Forget expensive factory bikes and endless horsepower. The Bohannon family built a world champion around a few simple principles.

  • Technique before speed.
  • Ride with riders faster than you.
  • Learn something every lap.
  • Stay calm when things go wrong.
  • Keep the bike simple.
  • Never stop having fun.