TALENTED speedway star Cole Hunter has all the necessary ingredients to become a future world champion says his coach.

The precocious 13-year-old raced to the 2006 national championship in the MX92 S/W 85 class in the nine-round series at Doncaster recently. He also showed excellent form to bag a regional title when claiming the 2006 Yorkshire S/W 85 eight-round championship at Armthorpe.

Coach Steve Harrison has watched Cole develop over the last six years at Riverside Motor Cross Track in Yarm, and believes the Darlington teenager has all the attributes to become one the best riders in the world.

He said: "He comes down the track and we go through a few techniques. We have a few good riders there but Cole is the best of them.

"It is hard to teach a lot of kids under the age of ten-years-old. A lot of the lads that age are immature and don't listen but he did from day one.

"He rides in the small wheel class but he is faster than all of those in the big wheels, who are three and four years older, that's how good he is."

But despite his undoubted talents on the bike, Cole, who attends Hummersknott School and Language College in darlington, will have to face up to a dilemma in the very near future.

Sponsored by TM Ward haulage company in Darlington and SS Motor Cross shop, Chester-le-Street, Cole is also a classy performer in rugby and there may come a time where he will have to choose between the sports.

"He is going to have a problem in the future as he is a good rugby player," revealed Harrison. "But the problem with motorcross is that you have to be exceptionally good and stand out from the rest. Less people make it in racing.

"If you're good at rugby you just have to be one of many."

An assessment of how far his talents have developed on the track over the last couple of years can be measured by the very fact that he could step up in to the adult class now.

"I ride in adult racing and there is four grades, C, B A and the Experts," said Harrison. "If Cole went in to the adults now he would be in the experts, that is how fast it is. It is incredible.

"I ride in the experts and I have to pull all sorts of tricks just to keep in front of him.

"He is one of the very few riders who I can't really teach anything. He is just so calm and cool. I can teach all the body positioning and techniques but the adrenaline and panic you see in other riders is missing in him. And he is not big headed or boasts about his talents.

"He can make it to the top but it will be very hard. You would have to be a world champion just to make the money a regular Middlesbrough footballer would make a year.

"But I hope he sticks at it because I believe he'll be in the British and world championships if he does."