Ben: Casey Brown, from BC Canada, is a very impressive young rider and is one of a hand full of girls I’ve seen that can ride a DH bike with real authority. Casey had a great first season of racing World Cup downhill last year and a podium finish at the World Cup finals in Norway showed her potential for big things, it was in fact Rachel Atherton who suggested Casey as an addition to the team and after some talks with Stanny, Dirt and all the sponsors we were able to get Casey on board.

Dan: It has always been a goal of ours to get to a position where the team could offer support to some young new talent progressing to an international level and few people qualify better in that category than Junior racer George Gannicott, already with prestigious UK National wins to his name.

Ben: Greg Callaghan trained for a full World Cup downhill season last year and after competing in some enduro events early in 2012 decided to change his plans and went on to have some great results in enduro that year instead. After a solid winter training for his goals in enduro for 2013 we are all really keen to see Greg have the season he deserves.

Dan: For me this last year has been new territory in some ways because I have been putting on a shirt and tie in the daytime to work at a new job as well as racing. I have always had other things going on in life as well as racing, from Uni when I was younger to testing and development projects and helping organise the team in recent years, so the time spent not on a bike isn’t new. Working in a professional engineering job that has absolutely nothing to do with bikes however is new! Now well into my stride with the whole shirt/tie/office job kinda thing, I am pleased to discover rather than squeezing out riding as result, the separation between work and racing bikes for fun means I look forward to riding, racing and working with the Dirt Norco team that much more.

Ben: It’s a huge plus for myself and Stanny having a team of likeminded riders alongside us this year who are all capable of playing a part in the team’s results tally as well as being able to showcase these guys through different media features that we have in store. Gee Milner (from Gee Milner Media and on page 64 of this mag) will be working closely with us to release some outstanding video edits from riding locations all round the place as well team race edits, so I hope you can keep an eye on the Dirt website to follow the team’s progress this season.

Dan: I have really never been more excited to go racing. With Ben and I joined by three great new racers this year, who all share the same enthusiasm to go ride, I am looking forward to some good times to come.