For a rider who had raced in American throughout the 1993/4/5/6 seasons the new mayhem of short, high tempo moto GP Motocross action was not as difficult for the ever talented Dobber, while some of his rivals struggled to come to terms with the early lap chaos Dobber had been racing that type of tempo for many years.

Add the fact that the 125cc moto’s were run when the track was still soaked with water and you had James Dobb as the early season favorite.

“I’m one of the best mud riders in the World,” Dobb told recently. I can win against anyone when it’s muddy, and I’ll put money on that. We had some mud races in 2001 and when I beat Langston in 2000 it was often in the mud.”

Dobb added seven GP victories to his tally of three from 2000 and moved into the record books, placing 10th in the all time winners list for 125cc GP’s.

More importantly James Dobb became England's first ever World 125cc Motocross champion, a new King of British Motocross was born, or reborn, depending on how you looked at it.

“It was a huge moment,” Dobb said. “I had worked my whole life for that title, and with my small baby being born in the same year I was really on a high in 2001, I’m not sure I can ever match what happen back two years ago.”

DESPAIR – 2002

When the 2002 season opened Dobb knew it would be tough. Having decided to enter the World 250cc championship he came up against the great Frenchman Mickael Pichon. What would count against Dobb more than anything though was the fact KTM had designed a new KTM 250cc machine, and the 2002 season would be a year of testing, bike breakdown and more testing.

“I went into the season with my confidence not at an all time high,” Dobb said. “I had missed so much from not riding from my injury from 2001. It was tough, I rode okay in Holland and went in with an open mind. After a few minutes I was running with Pichon and Bolley in third place and well ahead of fourth place, then the bike would not shift, I ended up fourth."

"Then in Spain I smashed my thumb and went into round two really struggling. I was in pain the whole race, then the suspension went on me, then a rock went through the clutch cover and lost all the oil. When we went to Germany my thumb was still sore, then I snapped it back after a few minutes and the suspension was still not good. I could hardly hold on. On the last lap I was coming down and it was a banked corner, then I went to cut out of the corner and the front end just went from under me, and I went down."

"It was a hard one to get over; I had never done something like that in my whole career, so that was difficult to get over. I we been able to get to the finish in Spain, and not crashed in Germany I would have been leading the points after three rounds, maybe then we could have run with some luck and things would have been different.”