Meet the Athlete: Callum Norton

Meet Callum Norton. A fast young punk with a bright future in the motocross and desert racing world.
We hit him up to find out what he’s like away from the racetrack and his future plans.

NAME: Callum Norton
AGE: 17
TEAM: KTM
WEIGHT/HEIGHT: 85kg / 184cm
SINGLE/STEADY/HITCHED: Steady
KIDS: No kids
MUSIC: Hip Hop
MY CREW: I live a pretty fair way away from most of my racing friends so it makes it hard to have anyone to ride with during the week. Most weekends I’ll try get out to the local ride parks and meet up with Bailey Milkiewics and Dylan Long.  

If I didn’t race dirt bikes professionally, I’d probably be…
On the tools with my old man. He’s a builder so I’d be joining him doing that.

Three things people don’t know about me are…

1. I’m a second year appreciate carpenter (but only show up when I’m not riding)
2. I’m not a morning person.
3. I do a lot of bush riding. It’s something I’ve grown up doing with my dad and still love it to this day.

The worst thing about being a privateer?
I have only just recently picked up a factory ride for next year. So I’m really looking forward to that. Having a solid team behind you helps a lot with everything. After being a privateer this year just the cost to get yourself to all the races is crazy. Then trying to make a bike that can compete with the factory bikes is hard.

My most memorable race was…
It would probably have to be going over to the USA as a Junior and racing in the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur National, coming away with 6^th place.

My fiercest rivalry was/is with (who, and why)…
Cody Dyce. We’re the same age so we battled our whole junior career and again in MXD this year.

If I was a series promoter, the first thing I’d do is…
The promoters now do an awesome job I think. But it would be great to get more TV coverage of the sport.

A funny story about my mechanic (or team manager)…
We were at the last round of the MX Nationals this year, I was halfway through the second moto when my bike came to a sudden stop. Unfortunately, my mechanic forgot to fuel her up.

I escape from the grind of training and racing by…
Playing a lot of golf when I’m not riding or training. I’ve played golf since I was young and really enjoy it as an outlet away from riding. And as I mentioned earlier, I enjoy going bush riding with my mates.

I’m obsessed about…
Watching old moto movies of guys like Ricky Carmichael, Jeremy McGrath and James Stewart. Especially when Stewart was racing a 125. It never gets old!

Don’t even start me about…
Roll offs! I have never been a fan of them.

What about your amazing effort at Hattah this year? 
Hattah has always been one of my favourite races of the year! I’ve won the Junior event 4-times but I really looked forward to finally racing the 4-hour senior race. It was definitely the hardest race I’ve ever done, but at the same time, it was so fun. I was pretty stoked to finish 4th Outright and 1st in the 450-class. It’s definitely a race I’d like to keep doing as long as I’m racing for.

What does the future hold?
I’ve actually just signed a one year deal with Honda! I’ve been on a KTM pretty much my whole life so it was a hard decision to move to another brand. But the opportunity that has come from Honda is one I couldn’t say no to. I’ll be under the Honda Desert Team racing Finke Desert Race for the first time, and Hattah again next year. I’ll be racing the MX Nationals and a couple other Motocross races. As far as Supercross goes, I’m unsure of the plan yet.

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