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‘OMAGH FLYER’ Lewis Spratt is relishing the 2026 motocross season after he signed a deal to race for a new Sion Mills-based team run by Uel McClintock and his Jet Products Yamaha business.
While delighted by the deal, Spratt admits it came along somewhat out of the blue.
“It’s going to be a good bit of craic with the new bike,” he beamed. “We didn’t expect this at all, there were no hints that this was happening at all. It came out of the blue.
“We had rang Uel about a bike because we had been ringing around seeing what 250s were like because we didn’t know what we were on about. I was on to my dad [Mark] about a Yamaha because I’d always liked them [having ridden a Yamaha 85 in 2021].
“And I always thought the Yamaha 250s were a really cool bike and some of the top riders I like are on Yamaha 250s and I always thought they were a cool bike, how they look and how they sound.
“So we approached Uel about buying a bike off them and that was all right, but a couple of hours after my dad set the phone down we got a call back from them saying they wanted to do a contract with me and give me a bike for 2026.
“We were sort of stunned by the whole thing but there was no hesitation, it was immediately ‘yes!’.”
17-year-old Lewis endured a season to forget in 2025 when a big crash at the start of the season was followed by mechanical issues with his KTM 125 machine that blighted his campaign throughout.
Despite not achieving as many positive results as he would have hoped last season left the Omagh High School pupil wondering what was next in the sport he has been dedicated to throughout his life, so he is pleasantly surprised that the opportunity to ride a Yamaha and team up with the McClintocks in 2026 onboard a YZ250f has come along.
“It’s good to see someone having a bit of faith in me after the year I had,” he explained. “It wasn’t really the best year, not because of me, but mainly bike problems and crashes, it just wasn’t a good year.
“I was running up the front but I couldn’t stay consistent with the bike bother so it’s good to see someone wanted to try to come on board because we were worried people would turn their backs when they saw [the results from 2025].
” It’s good that someone saw past that, that there is a bit of potential, and they are willing to give us a big hand like that.”
Looking ahead to 2026 and Spratt is excited to race a 250 machine for the first time in a host of MX2 championships across Ulster, Ireland and mainland Britain, but he admits, the new bike will take some getting used to over the winter.
“I’ve never really rode a four-stroke, I know very little about them,” he added. “It’s all new to me so we’ll get it run in [over the winter] before next season when I’ll do the British under-21s in the MX2s, the Scottish MX2s and the Irish and we’ll probably float in and out of other races.
“Moving up to the MX2 class, it’s weird thinking I’m going to be racing with the top guys I enjoyed watching last year. It will be weird sitting on the line with riders you look up to, but it’s something to look forward to!”
And Spratt’s new team principal, Uel McClintock is excited to be working with the Omagh teenager over the coming year and hopefully beyond after deciding to take the plunge into running a motocross team in 2026.
“I’ve been selling motocross bikes with Yamaha since 2022, so I suppose, Lewis is a very good talent and he’s local, which is important because it’s important to support local people,” he explained.
“That’s pretty much why we’re thinking of doing something along with Lewis. Other riders we’re going to be helping that are running at the very, very top in the Premiers, but we wanted to start with Lewis and develop a relationship that lasts.
“It will be an exciting year and he’s definitely a future star.”
