Dorren Coutts may only be 16 but he has already come a long way in motorsport.

Now the Horsham motocross racer is planning to go a lot further.

Coutts was British champion in his age group last year and was subsequently snapped up to race for Kawasaki Team Green.

Competing on the world stage is his long term goal and there are plenty of people who feel the teenager can achieve that.

Dorren first got on a bike at the age of seven and he was competing in local races aged eight.

Dad Jeff said: "My dad Vic did some racing and I did some as a kid.

"Dorren started on a mini bike and at eight he started competing in local events. He was quite competitive straight away. He just wanted to win from the start.

"By the end of the first year he was winning the local events and from there he went to on to the British Championship."

Last year was a fantastic year for Coutts. Not only did he win the British title for his age group, he also competed in the World Championship, where he finished in the top five, and the European Championships, travelling to places such as Hungary, Austria, Portugal and France in the process.

An offer came from Team Green and, although this year has not gone so well, the step up to a new age group should be taken into account.

Jeff said: "It has been a bad season. His gran died at the start of the year. When you get to this level you need to be out practising every day and because of that he couldn't do so. It meant we started the season on a bad footing.

"We are now focusing on next season. They move up in age group every three years, so next year will be his second year in this age group.

"It has also been his first year on a 125. He is been a big learning curve, learning how to set the bike up and how much fitter you need to be for the 125 bike.

"We are aiming to finish in the top five in the championship this year and there is still a chance.

"We could have won it if everything had gone smoothly but at this level you need everything to come together."

Dorren has left school and is doing an apprenticeship studying carpentry and plumbing. However, he considers himself as good as full time with his racing.

Thanks to Team Green he is supplied bikes, oil and Dunlop tyres as well as a spares budget for the year.

He keeps himself fit by swimming, running and weight training and next year he will be doing some adult racing as well as competing in the British Championship again.

He is also on the ACU Academy scheme which selects the 12 best riders in the various forms of motorsport from across the country.

Jeff said: "Dorren is on the academy for motocross and my brother's boy Daniel is on the road-racing academy. They go away to fitness sessions, they study interview techniques and sports psychology and they learn the bikes with an ex-world champion."

The Coutts family are hoping this will prepare the youngsters for a big future in the sport.

Jeff said: "It is already a huge goal achieved for Dorren to sign as a professional (with Team Green) this year.

"Long term he wants to compete at world level. As a country we need to get people back competing at that level and it is Dorren's personal goal to put England back on the map."