Luke's team
Luke Norris is exceptional for many reasons, but none more so than his team, which is now almost entirely made up of his family.
Luke is very vocal about the support he gets from his family and it’s evident that he wouldn’t be the athlete he is without their support. Here’s what Luke’s mum, Tracy, has to say on the subject...
“The biggest difference with Luke is that it’s down to us as a family to run him. This is partly because we ran him for 10 years through school boy racing and built up a lot of knowledge and contacts as a matter of course. So it made sense for us to continue as his support.
Plus we know Luke better than anyone else ever could, so we know how to handle him. And we can be honest with him in a way that others can’t. Honesty is important when you’re facing the sorts of challenges that Luke does.
Matt (Luke's dad) is his mechanic and has over 26 years’ experience on race teams, so he knows the score. He was a racing nut in his day and he’s built engines for years, which gives him that crucial combination of skill, passion and experience. Not only does he prep Luke's bikes all the time, but he does development work on them too. On race day he makes sure the bikes are in tip top condition. Matt’s day job also involves working with bikes, but looking after Luke's 3 bikes takes up every evening and weekends. He’s so dedicated to Luke and he never moans about the time it takes.
I do the PR and Marketing and I make sure Luke’s eating the right things in preparation for race day (never underestimate the importance of diet in sport!). I have been working with a retired client of mine (Jo Langton), who used to run her own marketing business and she’s been helping me to raise Luke's profile and get more sponsors on board. We have a lot planned to get Luke's name on the map.
Yasmin (Luke's sister) who’s 19 year old, helps out with Luke's kit, cleaning and sorting for race day. She also helps to do Luke's pit boarding during races: she’s a big support. He really lucked out with such a hands-on sister. Not many people are as willing to get their hands dirty as she is.
The only outside help we get is from his MX teacher (we recently teamed up with Carl Nunn, ex-British Champ) who does a great job with teaching him new skills and improving performance.
When Luke got into Motocross (age 6) he was taught by Mervyn Anstie. Mervyn's son now rides in America, so we are unable to spend as much time with him. While we miss Mervyn’s support, Carl has been invaluable in Luke’s development and we’re very pleased with the progress he’s making.
Having the support of his family does keep the costs down and I know that a lot of the other riders his age are having to pay thousands of pounds into a team to get the back-up and support that we provide. We feel that if we use our own assets, Luke can do as well as the others if not better.
Of course, much as we’re a good team for Luke, we can’t take all the credit. Luke trains hard at the local gym, as well as taking part in other types of outside training. In addition to this Luke has great support from his grandparents and he has a wonderful circle of friends both inside and outside of the sport, who give him massive support.
Luke is very self-motivated, determined and disciplined: he’ll train 3 times a day without any prompting from us; he works really hard all year round; and he takes his career in motocross very seriously. Luke passed his GCSE exams a couple of years ago, whereas a lot of riders drop out of school and only ride. That’s one of the reasons that we’re so proud of him.
Being a team for Luke is damned hard work, but it’s easy when it’s for someone you love, and for someone you know will always do their very best to get results. That’s all we can ask for."
