Bradley, 19, was runner up in the FIM 125cc World Championship on his Aspar Aprilia to team-mate Julian Simon but is favourite to take the crown next season and be the first Briton since the late Barry Sheene to claim a world title.
Sheene won the 500cc championship for Suzuki in 1976 and 1977 but his retirement in 1984 began a drought which has seen a generation of riders fail to make the grade.
James Toseland is the latest in a long line to take on the world’s best and come up short but after two wins and a further seven podium finishes this year, Smith is ready to take top spot – particularly after Simon made the step up to the new Moto2 class.

Bradley said: “I learned a lot as a rider this year and you can see that the bike was the same as in 2008 but my lap times have consistently improved.
“I had a lot less crashes and consistently finished races in the points which is what you need to do to win the title, and I also learned a lot from watching Simon race.
“He had a completely different style to anyone else and that made me improve my riding.
“I feel that I stepped up my level and in the last three or four rounds of the season the two of us were in a class of our own.
“I am learning when to push for a win and when to accept the points and that comes with experience.”

Bradley has ambitions to move through the classes and emulate the likes of Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner by ending up in MotoGP and is under no illusions that he must deliver next season.
Simon’s move leaves the Oxfordshire youngster as firm favourite for a title but he is relishing the responsibility.

He said: “There is added pressure on me for 2010 after finishing second this year as if I don’t win then people will see it as a waste of a year.
“But I feel really good about the bike, I don’t want to stop for winter as I am flying at the minute but we will all be ready for the opening round.
“It’s a shame that James Toseland missed his opportunity in MotoGP as British biking needs someone up there but hopefully the focus will be on us in 125s next year.
“There has been a lot of talk about being the first since Barry Sheene to win a title but that is still a long way away.
“There is a big chance for me to win the title next year but if I start chasing that dream too early it won’t happen.
“It’s nice to have the limelight on me and it’s a chance for me to shine but I need to keep calm and keep doing what I have been doing for the last year or so.
“With a world title all doors are open for you as a young rider and I will be able to pick the route for my career if I do it but it will take a lot of hard work and luck for it to come off.
“But hopefully this time next year I will have that trophy on my mantelpiece at home.”

BRADLEY SMITH #38
Date of Birth: 28/11/1990 – Garsington – Oxfordshire – Great Britain
Age: 18
First race: Motocross – January 1997
First Grand Prix: Spain Grand Prix – 2006
First Victory: –
Last Victory: –
First Pole: Qatar Grand Prix – 2008
First Fastest Lap: –
First Podium: England Grand Prix – 2005
Victories: –
Podiums: 5
Pole Positions: 3
Fastest Laps: –
Best General Result: 125cc World Championship – 6th
Total Grand Prix appearances: 47 – 125cc

CAREER SO FAR
1997 – 1st Cotswold Winter Championship
1st Bedfont Lakes Summer and Winter Club Championship
1998 – 1st Winter Vale of White Horse Championship
1st Summer Cotswold Championship
4th All British Championship
1999 – 15th All British Junior 65 Championship
2000 – 4th National BSMA Championship
6th British Supercross Championship
2001 – 1st British Supercross Championship
2002 – 3rd Sheffield Supercross
2003 – 1st Future West Supercross
Several victories in BSMA and KWS Championship
2004 – 4th MRO Superteen Championship
7th MRO GP 125cc Championship
2005 – 10th British Championship – 125cc
2nd CEV -Spanish Championship 125cc
2006 – 20th World Championship 125cc
2007 – 8th World Championship 125cc
2008 – 6th World Championship 125cc

BIOGRAPHY
Nobody could lay claim to an earlier start in motorcycle culture than Bradley Smith, who grew up just 100 metres from a motorcross track that was owned by his parents in his native Oxford. For as long as he can remember Bradley has helped out his father maintain the track – from planning it and grooming it to just taking walks around it, Bradley’s dream since he was in nappies was a future as a motorcycle racer.

As soon as he came home from school, Bradley would spend every available evening riding the track on his bicycle until Christmas 1996, when his father finally bought him his first motorcycle – a Kawasaki 60cc. Just a month later, when he reached the minimum racing age of six, he took part in his first competition at the circuit by his house. From that day onwards he was rarely off a motocross or supercross bike and he was a regular contender in the British Motocross Championship, winning the title in 2001.

He looked set for a bright future in off-road racing until 2003, when he broke his leg and was ruled out for three months. The time away gave him chance to consider an alternative career and Bradley now sees the injury as a positive thing because it was during his period of convalescence that he decided to switch codes and trade in his career as a motorcross racer for a future in road racing.

He tried his hand on tarmac for the first time in 2004, finishing fourth in the MRO Superteen series, including a race victory at Lydden, and seventh in the MRO GP 125cc series despite only taking part in three rounds.

In 2005 Bradley entered the 125cc Spanish Championship, riding a Honda for the MotoGP Academy Team. He missed out on the title by a single point after taking victory in the final three rounds at Albacete, Valencia and Jerez. That same year he also registered tenth place overall in the 125cc British Championship, despite missing several rounds due to his commitments with the MotoGP Academy.

However, it was his performances in Spain that had converted him into the bright hope of British motorcycle racing and secured a deal with the Repsol team for his debut 125cc World Championship season in 2006. Riding a Honda, at the age of fifteen the teenager took the title of Rookie of the Year, with stand-out performances in Japan, Great Britain, Germany and Valencia. In 2007 he was a regular points-scorer, confirming his reputation as one of the most promising talents in the World Championship, ending that season eighth overall.

Bradley, known for being methodical and thorough in his approach to racing, signed for the Polaris World team in 2008 as his career continued to progress on a factory Aprilia RSA.

The season saw him become a consistent frontrunner in practice and in the races although he was robbed of his dream of a first victory at World Championship level when crashing out of the lead on several occasions. However, it was still the year Bradley confirmed his reputation as one of the top young riders in the category, ending the season sixth overall.

In 2009 both the British youngster and the Bancaja Aspar team are hoping to create a winning partnership. The Spanish outfit have spent two years chasing Bradley’s signature and are ready to give him all the resources he needs to challenge for his first victory, and hopefully many more.

Source: Aspar Media

And the 18-year-old has told MCN how Mamola has helped him take a more relaxed approach to his racing as he prepares for the first round in Qatar this weekend as one of the big pre-season favourites.
Smith’s early years in road racing were spent under the tutelage of tough task master Alberto Puig, who helped nurture the likes of Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa.

But having worked closely with Mamola to prepare for a season where he hopes to finally break his victory duck, Smith told MCN: “Having Randy around he’s a very mellow person when it comes to the mental side of racing.
“He always gives me his opinion and that is very honest. He’s always got a different way of looking at things.

Also being around his son Dakota and seeing how he goes about racing, he goes to have fun. Sure when he sits on the start line he is 100 per cent focused, but around the paddock he is all chilled out.
“That just shows me that when you put your visor down, within those couple of seconds you’re in race mode. But when you take the helmet off you need to take it off and put everything to one side.

“It has definitely helped a lot just having a different point of view rather just full on attack.
“It has helped me see the bigger picture. So hopefully I’ll be a little bit faster and little bit more chilled out.”

The 18-year-old told MCN: “He is such a nice guy. He’s a big motocrosser, that’s where he started from too.
“Me being from motocross as well I was trying to get him to sign up for a day on the bikes! He was a really nice guy and really down to earth.”
Smith said he also used the experience to change his perception of Formula One having got the chance to observe Hamilton from trackside at the Catalunya circuit.

“I could go round the circuit slip road and have a look at those cars. It’s amazing because you think they are just flat-out and turn it. But those cars move around so much without traction control and you can see which cars are set up for the slow corners and which for the fast corners
“To see that side of F1, I’ve taken back my first impressions of it being really boring. Those guys are putting in a lot of effort and the speed they carry is something else.”
Smith finished second during last weekend’s Jerez test session while Hamilton started the defence of his F1 title with third place in Australia.

His Spanish team ran different engine configurations during the Portugal test as the British teenager ended fourth quickest overall.

And despite finishing a massive 1.3s adrift of dominant Aspar Aprilia team-mate Julian Simon, Smith was satisfied with his own display with just five days of testing remaining before the first race in Qatar on April 12.

Smith enjoyed his best world championship campaign in 2008 with four podium finishes.

“I was able to consistently ride in the 46s and I was happy with the work I was doing with the bike. It was another 160 laps on another completely different circuit and I think testing in Estoril was necessary.

“We normally always ride in Valencia and Jerez and you can get into a bit of a rut and you don’t end up trying too much. We improved the engine a lot in Estoril. The team has been working very hard since the first couple of tests and they came up with some new configurations. The engine was really on song and felt really powerful. The acceleration was much better.

“I was able to come out of corners and the bike felt much pokier and it seemed to drive really hard and that is really important in 125s. It’s more important that top speed. Acceleration and mid-range is where you need to work and we made another big step. The moment you get on the throttle it powers through the rpm and picks up a lot quicker with a lot more power.”