With five podiums in the UK and one international podium, 2017 has been the teams most successful race season yet. Andy Houghton and William Swift have both progressed from Rookie level racers to Clubman Level racers, and Talan Skeels-Piggins has now become a full ACU Race Instructor.

Talan and Andy were able to head over to Jerez for pre-season testing. Both riders making the most of the circuit despite the wet conditions. At one point of the three day tip, they were the only two riders out on the circuit, it was like a private test usually only enjoyed by the elite MotoGP racers! Talan was able to have instruction from John Laverty and made progress with his riding of the GSXR600. Andy was able to use the Pacedayz instructors to become familiar with the circuit and the GSXR750.

In the Rookie Thunderbike Extreme class, Andy achieved three podiums (1st, 3rd, 3rd) and finished the season third overall, with William getting onto the podium twice (3rd, 3rd) and finishing seventh in class. This wasn't without its ups and downs though, and both riders suffered a few DNFs due to mechanical issues, which also led to them unable to start some races. William also missed the first three rounds due to filming commitments that carried over from the previous year. Who knows where the riders could have finished had they not missed out on those valuable points, but thats racing for you.

Talan was having a positive start with the MRO600 season, but then his engine blew up during qualifying at Donington. The time it took to diagnose the faults, asses the options, then find and install a new engine meant he missed a number of rounds within that class. Luckily he was able to continue racing with his 1997 CBR600FV. The bike is an exact copy of the bike he was paralysed on, and was bought to put to bed some of the ‘demons’ that still lingered on. Talan's qualification success at Snetterton, where he managed to qualify third in class, has shown that the demons have certainly been expelled. He did manage to compete in half of the MRO600 rounds, finishing twelfth overall.

Another big highlight for Talan was the trip over to France in May, and competing in the Disabled World Cup - a support race of the Le Mans MotoGP. In front of 20,000 spectators, Talan overcame the low top end speed of the bike with aggressive riding, late braking and sheer determination. Despite having the ninth slowest top speed (from thirty racers), he finished in ninth position overall, fourth in the overall 600cc and second in the paralysed 600cc class he was competing for. A fabulous result against the worlds top disabled racers.

In October the 90 minute feature documentary ‘Dream The Impossible’ was released. The production crew (Speechless) had followed the team in their 2015 season, putting together a truly inspiring and thought-provoking documentary. The trailer for the film has reached 1.9 million views on Facebook alone, and the first run of DVDs on Amazon sold out in two weeks. All reviews have been positive on Amazon, iTunes and Sky.

Looking ahead, in November the team will be at the NEC Motorcycle Live Show, including a bike on display with Bikers Discount Store. Members of the team will be on hand to chat about the team, what it does and how to get into two wheeled riding through The Bike Experience charity.

Next season Andy will be competing a ZX10R in the Powerbikes, William remains in the Thunderbike Extreme with his Honda SP2, and Talan will be juggling instructing duties alongside the Thunderbike Sport and MRO600 class.

We are extremely proud of the hard work put in by the Talan Racing Team, and hope their efforts have rewarded your support and given you reason to continue your support into 2018.

Reveiw and images provided by Talan Racing