EVENING Press sports writer DAVE FLETT talks to Easingwold's Steve Webster, in the slipsteam of his ninth world title success.

FAME and adulation follows Michael Schumacher and Valentino Rossi wherever they tread foot let alone burn rubber.

The respective Formula One and Moto GP world champions are worldwide household names and that is reflected in the size of their bank accounts and fan base.

Easingwold's more modest and unassuming nine-time world champion Steve Webster enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame in the late 1980s, although he is probably remembered more for his spectacular crash into a ditch that was repeated week after week ad nauseam on Grandstand's opening credits than the three successive world crowns that he won with Tony Hewitt.

But perhaps unknown to most people outside of North Yorkshire and fully-committed motor sports fans, Webster, who is now 43, did not disappear into the '80s abyss along with Culture Club, Panini stick-er albums and Rubik's Cubes.

He has won six more world titles since the decade that style forgot and is still taking as many risks as Schumacher and Rossi in his pursuit of world domination.

Webster's MBE is scant reward for his achievements over the last 20 years and his latest world crown barely attracted a paragraph in the nation's sports pages.

Jealousy, however, is not a part of Webster's emotional make-up.

"I'm not envious," he said. "The glass is either half-empty or half-full and I feel so lucky that I have made a living and career out of something I love doing. I've seen a lot of countries and it's a nice sport to be in.

"I can go to the race and come back and then enjoy a normal family life."

The sport's profile in England has plummeted since its removal from our television screens but Webster is hopeful that the relaunch of the British Championships next year could see the sport achieve the level of popularity it still enjoys in Germany, France and Holland.

He said: "It's like a lot of sports in England like kart racing and moto-cross. Sometimes they get a profile on TV for two or three years and then they disappear again. You just have to accept that might be the case when you get into it."

And who knows, if Webster had pursued his early passion for truck racing, the Great British sporting public could have, instead, been subjected to spectacular six-ton crashes on their TV screens every Saturday lunchtime.

"The trucks are heavier and take a little more effort," Webster admits. "They are big and cumbersome and you are a bit higher and further away from the track than you are in a sidecar.

"Six tons of truck also takes a lot of stopping when you get a bit of a problem."

Impressively, Webster's only serious injury in motor racing was the broken arm he sustained in his famous river bank skirmish. "I was young and going too fast," he laughs.

Steve is the son of 1967, 1968 and 1969 British Sidecar Grass Track champion Mick Webster and first started trying the sport as a hobby with his brother before "realising that with the right sort of equipment and backing I could compete".

More financial support followed as Webster racked up world championship victories and titles but the York speed king admits that the sport is not the easiest to get into.

Just like the pole vault in athletics, you need the right equipment before you can even see if you have a talent.

You also need a willing and able passenger.

"If you want to ride a Moto-Cross bike you can buy one and give it a go on a field to see how good you are," Webster points out. "But sidecar racing is more specialised.

"To get a ride with a team you need to know what you are doing in the first place. You have to commit yourself before you even try it because you can't hire a sidecar for a day to see if you like it."

Webster himself took a one-year sabbatical from the sport when he became disillusioned in 1995 because of the financial burden but returned for the final race of that year's calendar and has stayed on the scene ever since.

He said: "I think I'd been doing it too long and I became aware that we could not have the equipment that we needed to have a chance of winning. We were having to use a three-year-old bike and equipment and I did not want to race knowing the best I could finish was fifth or sixth.

"I felt I had enough of it but after staying at home for a while I decided I did miss it. I then started racing as an employee and did not have the financial commitment of running a team."

Updated: 10:27 Saturday, October 25, 2003