THE name of Hodgson has been synonymous with motorcycling around the Hutton Rudby area for generations and the latest in a string of top class sportsmen to emerge from the family is 19-year-old Russ Hodgson.

The youngster could have been forgiven for taking up speedway and following in the footsteps of his grandfather Frank, who captained both England and Middlesbrough, and his father Russell, who was captain of Manchester giants, Belle Vue.

But it was the high speed world of road racing which captured Russ' imagination after a season riding mini-moto bikes.

He was inspired by his uncle Stuart Hodgson, a former racer and Croft lap record holder who competed all over the world in 24-hour endurance events in the seventies.

In only his second full season in the sport, Hodgson has managed to acquire an impressive list of sponsors for his assault on the 12-round 125cc British Championship. But he has still needed to juggle three jobs to finance his passion and has worked as a part-time gardener, an electrical goods salesman and even a waiter on his spare evenings.

After finishing fourth in the national 125cc championship last season, the decision was taken by Hodgson and main sponsor Peter Robinson, of Tillston Motorcycles in Stockton, to compete in the ultra-competitive British 125cc Championship.

Hodgson scraped into the all-important points-scoring top 15 in round two at Donington Park back in April and, although he hasn't scored points in any of the other races, he has finished in eight out of the nine races to date.

This is despite never racing at many of the circuits before and competing against riders with much Grand Prix experience.

The former champion triathlete, who quit another job working for a Porsche car racing team to allow him his weekends free to go racing himself, spends any spare time he has aboard his BMX bike or surfing off the coast at Saltburn as part of his training regime.

Hodgson goes into the final three British Championship races brim full of confidence after defying the pain of an injured ankle sustained in practice to score a battling top 20 finish in round nine at Cadwell Park on Monday.

He slid off during Sunday's qualifying and banged his right ankle on the barriers, but still qualified in 24th position. In the 15-lap race, he eventually settled for another consistent finish in front of a record 35,000 crowd.

Hodgson now has a couple of weeks off before heading for round ten of the series at Mallory Park.

With maturity that belies his age, Hodgson says he wants to do another season in the 125cc class before making the move into the 250cc or even the Supersport class at British or World Championship level.