Motorcycle enthusiast Dan Phelps has been riding high over the weekend as a passenger in sidecar motocross.

Dan, 32, from Trowbridge, is contesting the world championship as a passenger in the Team Kinge outfit.

He is part of the Team Kinge sidecar duo with 25-year- old George Kinge, from Bordon in East Hampshire, at the controls of the 700cc engine Zabel power bit on a WSP chassis

Mr Phelps, owner and lead climber at Axiom Arboriculture, has been riding in competitive motorsport for 15 years.

He came sixth in the British championships last year. This is his first year as a Grand Prix sidecar motocross passenger.

He said: “Sidecar motocross is an exciting and family-friendly sport where the driver maintains the speed and the passenger maintains the balance.”

The pair have been training in Spain and France and competed in two rounds of the Dutch championship and the first British event where they finished sixth overall.

Their first grand prix was at Markelo in Holland over the weekend with practices, timed training and a qualifying race on Saturday and two 30-minute races on Sunday.

In the event, the pair had a tough weekend in Holland after they crashed in soft sand in the first race after qualifying in 12th place.

“It was a little bit demoralising because we dropped back so far after we got stuck in the sand,” Mr Phelps said.

In the second race, they were lying in 15th place before another sidecar duo crashed in front of them and the race was red-flagged and they finished in 14th place.

Mr Phelps added: “It was a good race and it was a shame that it got cut short really. It was a huge learning curve for me being my first time in the Dutch sand.”

This weekend, the pair will be competing in the British sidecar championships at Duns motocross track in the Lammermuir Hills in the Scottish Borders.

Mr Kinge is contesting the World Series having finished sixth in the British Championships last year and 17th in the World.

The team is sponsored by Wulfsport International , Sorbus International , Warren Windows UK and Bell Powers Sorts UK.

They will be competing in the British Championships at Cusses Gorse motocross track, near Salisbury, on Sunday, August 14.