Motor Cross: Shelby wins title and targets sibling

Riders in action at the motocross championships. Photo / Supplied.

Tauranga 11-year-old motocross ace Shelby Catley is growing accustomed to beating boys, but there is one rider she has yet to catch.

Shelby, who took out the seven-to-11-year-old 2013 Auckland Championship title on Saturday, is setting her sights on her 13-year-old brother, Kydd Catley, as she steps up in age and class to the 12 to 14-year-old division.

"She's like she is because she has spent the past five years riding in his dust. She still can't beat him but she is getting closer. They've got the same bike now, or the same model," said her mother Nicky Mulvaney.

"It will take her a while to get used to it - there's a transition period getting used to the power and everything."

Said dust, largely kicked up from the family's private track formed over a hectare and three months with diggers, has left a bad taste in Shelby's mouth.

Maintained once a month and including two international jumps, the track will host furious clashes between the siblings.

Shelby's results are impressive, but it is the manner in which these have been achieved that is making people take notice.

She won every race at the nationals, apart from one in which she finished second due her back wheel being clipped.

Too small to kick the bike over and without the benefit of a stand, Shelby calmly pushed the bike over to a wall, kicked it over, and still finished in second place.

The story was much the same in Auckland on Saturday - two first-place finishers and a second meant she claimed the title with points to spare.

What makes her rise all the more extraordinary is that she has only been racing competitively for about a year.

"She raced in the nationals last year but she had never raced before - we were a bit premature on that one.

"We went all the way to Wellington, if only we knew [then] what we [know now].

"She came sixth and she was on a small wheel and the first five guys were on big wheels."

Mulvaney wished to pay special thanks to Honda Hamilton boss Peter Bryant, whose help allowed the young rider to continue blazing her trail.

"We didn't have a trail bike or much money, so one day I sat down with the phone book and went through every agent in the North Island.

"He was the fourth one I'd got to. He said we'd have to buy one, but we only wanted it for a day or two."

The pair came to a deal that delivered an essentially brand new bike for a month before the nationals and the rest, as they say, is history.