The 13-year old finally captured the national No.1 plate he’s long coveted at Bathurst last week, beating a crack field to win the 14yrs final.

It was his first nationals since returning from a year in Canada, and followed several minor plate finishes in his previous attempts.

“I finally got that No.1 plate,” he said.

“It feels good.”

He wasn’t that confident going into the titles after having a relatively short preparation.

Two days before he returned to Australia he broke his wrist snowboarding.

While he was recuperating from that he then had a spill riding and inflamed a bursar in his knee.

“Once my cast came off I had four weeks to crack down and train, which is what I did,” he said.

Things didn’t go entirely to plan  down in Bathurst either.

He had a bit of a Steven Bradbury moment in the semis with the first four riders all crashing.

An issue at the start fortuitously had Davis a little way behind them and he was able to avoid the 

carnage.

The track is only newly-built and is about 80m longer than the Tamworth track, which made things tough.

“It felt like you were really dragging your legs coming down to the finish,” Davis said.

He had to ride it seven times on his way to the title.

There were the initial three mottos, which determine where you figure for the finals, then the eighth final, quarter final, semi-final and finally final.

The field for that included the then Australian champion, and another boy that has won six of the seven rounds of the national series.

Davis came out well and by the first corner had hit the front, which is where he stayed.

He said the year in Canada was great.

“We were travelling down to the States doing a lot of racing,” he said.

“It was definitely tougher racing. But I  think also the competition has got better since I’ve been away.” The consistency of racing was one of the big differences.

“All year around there was a race every weekend,” he said.

The tracks themselves were quite different too.

“The tracks are a bit smaller but a lot more technical,” he said.

“Power didn’t come into play at a lot of the tracks.”

He finished the year ranked sixth in the US and second in Canada, and has no doubt he’s come back a better rider.

“My skills improved a lot over there,” he said.

For one, he picked up his track speed.

He also picked up a spot on the GT Bicycles US Factory Team and will be heading back over in June to compete in some races, and then again in November for the Grands, which is regarded as the biggest BMX competition in the world.

He was one of four Tamworth riders that competed at Bathurst.

Mark Stones raced in the 40-44 men’s cruiser class, Dan Morris the junior pro class and Zac Whalan the 9 boys and 8-10 boys cruiser class.