Kent’s Sam Wilford will be back on the Dickies British Supersport Grid for 2019 as he makes the move to the British GP2 class for the coming season. 
Last weekend Sam, from Meopham, was over at the final MotoGP race of the season, putting the final pieces together to ride a 2018 Kalex Moto 2 bike for his campaign for the British GP2 Championship in 2019.
Wilford said: “Many thanks to Fausto Gresini and his Moto2 team for all their help and valuable information they have shared. I can’t wait to get started at the first test on a real race bike. If you would like to get involved as a partner in our exciting moto2 journey, email me to find out more at [email protected] “
For those who are unaware Sam has been riding from a young age, riding Motocross with his Dad, Ian Wilford who had raced sidecars in the European and World championships.
He started racing road bikes in Thundersport Superteens when he was 14. His Dad would drive over to Germany from the UK for each round, collect him from school and drive straight back to the race circuit.
He would race Saturday and Sunday and then set off back to Germany as soon as the final race was over to be back at school in Germany at 8 am Monday morning. When he was 16 he moved to the UK to live with his Dad and started to train and work as a mechanical engineer.
In 2014 he competed in his first season in the RRV450 championship and Supertwin Championships, which he won. In 2015 he won the RRV450 Championship and also raced for the season in the European Junior Cup which runs throughout the European rounds of World Superbikes, scoring a pole position and a podium result. They spent a lot of time that year travelling across Europe and the UK competing in both championships.
For 2016 they made the decision to race 600’s in British Supersport with EHA Racing for his debut season. He finished that season off with a 7th and a 5th setting him up nicely for the following year. For the 2017 season, Sam and his dad set up our own team, IDWe Racing. This is a branch of their own family mechanical and electrical engineering business based in Sidcup.
Sam added: “Running our own Supersport team in 2017 was a steep learning curve for the whole team. We were progressing nicely running inside the top 10, until Round 3 at Oulton Park where a crash in FP2 at Shell Oils resulted in a broken spine in 3 places, requiring surgery and putting my season on pause for 3 months.
“My recovery was positive, allowing me to return to the season for Brands Hatch. Building my confidence and getting back to full fitness was my priority after the first crash, until round 10 at Oulton Park where unfortunately during the final lap of race two I hit a fallen bike at Druids and broke my femur. This again needed surgery and sadly this time ended my season early.
“Throughout the winter off-season I had recovered entirely from both crashes, with the determination of fully preparing myself for the 2018 season. I began working with a performance mindset coach and a fitness trainer from the start of the season, whereby we have worked hard all year to enhance my performance.”
“These changes made and the continuous hard work of the team has led us to achieve consistent top 10 race finishes and podium results at both Brands Hatch and Silverstone.”