In only his second season in the EMX125 class and racing in Europe, Cole McCullough has showed some very good speed at times. Especially this year at the gnarly sand of Lommel where his results didn’t reflect his top five speed. McCullough also ended the season strongly at Matterley Basin scoring good points in both moto’s and also made his EMX250 debut on a 250cc two stroke at Arnhem where again he scored points in both of the twenty five minutes plus two lap races.
For the 2024 season, McCullough will be staying within his own setup once again to race the very competitive EMX125 series. However, he will make the switch from KTM machinery to Fantic. The young Northern Irish rider has just spent a couple of productive days riding the hard pack in Italy testing his new machine for the 2024 season.
Fantic UK and Maddii Racing will be involved as Corrado Maddii will build McCullough’s bikes for the season ahead so he’ll have very good machinery underneath him, which is always a big help at EMX level. Harry Nolte will once again prepare the bikes before each race weekend.
Cole McCullough: It’s great to have my plans secured for 2024 at this early stage. As past few years the Fantic machines prepared by Marco and Corrado have consistently been the best bikes on track, winning the EMX title on several occasions Last year there was talk about me getting some support from Maddii, but realistically I knew my riding and my results needed to improve before I could be considered for this kind of move.
Although my results sometimes this year didn’t reflect on my speed in all of the rounds, I was able to set lap times similar to the top ten guys in nearly every race, finishing just outside the top five in Latvia and scoring a few top ten finishes.
Next year my goal will be to break into that top five, which I am fully aware is a big task, but with this new deal in place and factory engines being built by Maddii Racing, then prepared by Harry Nolte, it really should be a possibility for me. For 2024 I have also been accepted to train at Ulster University, through SINI (Sports Institute Northern Ireland) under the guidance of William Moore on the Elite Athlete Programme. I am looking forward to a good strong off season getting prepared for 2024.
I have some great companies and individuals who have supported my racing this year, if I can carry them on with me into 2024, it will really give me another fantastic opportunity to showcase what I am capable of achieving on the European and World stages, on board this new machinery.
Words: Andy McKinstry
