Speedway: Rebel with a cause takes on the world | Hawkes Bay Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Hawkes Bay

Chromosomes, algebra, phonetics and Newton's law of motion just weren't part of his repertoire.

As Bradley Wilson-Dean sat in the back of the classroom at Karamu High School, his mind constantly drifted towards another law of motion - speedway.

It was solo bike racing, to be precise.

"I just didn't like school. I never did any assignments," says Wilson-Dean, not long after pulling himself away from his 500cc machine, which he was cleaning with a bucket of frothy water.

Consequently the 16-year-old abandoned his books, calculators and pens at the end of fifth form and is now taking a trade skills course at the Eastern Institute of Technology with the view of graduating in engineering.

That is not to say the youngster doesn't find time to saddle his bike for an adrenalin fix.

"There's nothing else like it," he says just before heading off to Sweden at the end of this month for his maiden under-17 solo bike World Championship where he will need to lease a 250cc bike.

With sponsorship from Speedway New Zealand, Motorcycling New Zealand and Hawke's Bay Speedway, Wilson-Dean has resorted to raffles and donations from friends to raise $5500 to date as well as saving money from working at Metal Works in Onekawa every Monday.

Tomorrow, with the help of his mother, Ngaire Begley-Dean, he will stage a flat-track motocross meeting at Taihape Rd, Fernhill, from 10am to 4pm to raise more money for the champs at Norrkoping, a municipality in the province of Ostergotland, eastern Sweden.

"We are doing things for Sweden, with his dad [Darrin Wilson] stepping back and mum is stepping up," Ngaire says outside Wilson's upholstery business in Hastings.

Head down, staring at the driveway pavement for most of the interview, Wilson-Dean comes across as a rebellious teenager with an axe to grind.

He is carrying a few fresh battle scars, 2cm superficial gashes below his left eye and across the bridge of his nose, after falling flat on his face while helping his stepfather mark the motocross track at Taihape.

Sporting a silver ring on his lower bottom lip, Wilson-Dean smiles feebly when asked if the bling makes a statement about him.

He grapples with words to describe why he wears the jewellery before offering, much to the horror of his mother: "It seems to help with pulling chicks."

For a champion rider who revs up on the lyrics of rock bands such as System of the Down and Rage Against the Machine, Wilson-Dean proclaims a sense of liberation when he opens up the throttle around the 320m oval circuit over four laps.

While aware there's an imposing element of risk, Wilson-Dean puts his worst injuries as a couple of broken wrists and thumbs, "nothing major".

His premature return to the track last year after a crash at the East Coast Junior Championship, where he broke his wrist but finished runner-up, epitomises his sense of determination.

Requiring two months to recuperate, he defied the orders of his doctor by returning after just a week.

He had cut open the plaster cast.

"I told people my cast got wet so badly I had to take it off," he says with a grin.

His mother interjects, stressing she didn't approve of such methods.

"It scared me to watch Brad race. I'm now very proud of him and he's done extremely well," she says.

Having started with motocross, Wilson-Dean gravitated towards solo bike racing at the age of 11.

The speed, hitting up to 110km/h, gave him more of a rush. It takes less than two seconds to hit 100km/h, which is a faster rate of acceleration than even what Formula One drivers achieve, he claims.

Because there were no solo bike tracks in Hawke's Bay in his early years, Wilson-Dean had to travel to Auckland to compete.

His father rolled his sleeves up to build a track here in 2007.

Having stamped his supremacy in the New Zealand junior class on numerous occasions, the bored teenager yearned to mix it up with the seniors.

It was a baptism of fire for the boy in his first outing with the men.

"I used to go to Auckland and get my arse thrashed in those days but I'm beating them all now. I don't like to settle for seconds."

With the help of his father, Wilson-Dean got a taste of American competition, winning 32 out of 40 races.

He also went to Australia for a training stint at Mildura, Queensland.

Brady Mudgway, of Featherston, will be in the field with Wilson-Dean on July 9-10 in Sweden.

The top four riders after the heats will go into the semifinals and final.

The three-time Bay champion has ambitions to race professionally some day in England, where Mudgway's elder brother, Jade, is plying his trade now.