Ben Townley phone home... home phone!

The extraordinary terrestrial from Taupo New Zealand has returned home after a season long Motocross GP campaign in Europe and not a moment to soon as weather in central Europe takes a bitter turn.

After boarding a 24 hour flight along with Kiwi friend and fellow racer, Josh Coppins, BT - Ben Townley - arrived back in New Zealand just in time to race at his home track Digger McKewen Park in Taupo.

Townley claimed the overall in the open class by winning all three heats, trailed by former GP campaigner Darryll King. The two stars gave the crowd their money's worth in an exhibition of exciting adrenalin filled Motocross racing on a track that would put most GP circuits to shame with its natural undulating terrain.

The 125 class did not go all Townley's way when a crash in the last of the three heats caused the MX prodigy a DNF and relegated the factory KTM rider to second overall for the day, just behind King.

"Man what an awesome day of racing. Darryll and I were really putting it on for the crowd," commented the teenager. "I am so happy to be back home to see my family and mates.

"I just want to say a huge big thanks to my folks, Craig Behl my mechanic and of course KTM and all my sponsors who were behind me this year when times were more than hard. I've planned a few weeks of rest and then preparations start for next year. Bring on 2004!"

BT will be updating his BT logs weekly in preparation to his world title hunt for 2004. Follow the Kiwi down-under on www.bentownleymx.com until he returns to Europe in late January '04.