Motorcycling champion, Davey Todd, discusses how he used to survive off only bread and jam before success

Before his first official title in 2019, Davey was basically an unknown, working hard for years.

He was recently a guest on the motorbike podcast, Full Chat, discussing his journey.

Todd admitted to hosts David Prutton and Iwan Thomas, “Racing bikes as a living was the goal for me since pretty much the day I was born.”

“To make the dream become a reality is just the perfect world for me.”

“I’ve always tried to be grateful for that (where he is in life) and also try and enjoy the journey.”

The racing champ doesn’t want his fans to think he takes anything for granted, though.

“All this stuff takes so much work. I guess a lot of people don’t understand the work that’s involved in it,” he said.

“I sort of get people saying ‘it’s alright for you, you’ve got a good team and a good bike, it’s easy for you to get good results’ but I didn’t have that since day one and I’m not from a family with money.”

“It’s always hard to make it in motorsport when you’re not from money because it’s an expensive sport at any level.”

“So to come from a family that didn’t have money, just a general working-class family - my mum and my dad growing up worked super hard and sometimes multiple jobs to be able to fund my racing as a kid.”

Davey’s parents have been a big part of his growth within motorsport.

“As like a seven, eight-year-old kid, I was at the race track on a weekend and my dad would be on call full time to try and earn more money, and he’d actually leave me at the track sometimes when he had to go do a job,” he revealed.

“He’d say to our friends or one of my friend’s dads, ‘Oh, can you look after him and send him out when his race is on’ and stuff like that.”

Now, as the co-owner of his own team, he can understand how hard juggling his early career was for his parents.

He explained, “Every day, I try to remind myself, especially when it’s tough, it’s not just racing motorbikes, if it was just that, it wouldn’t be tough, it would be awesome fun and enjoyable - but it’s everything else.”

Davey had truly fought for his career, dreaming of riding in the TT. While in a motorsport lull, he was selling insurance to keep the lights on - then his friend asked if he could make it to the TT that year.

“I was like, I have got any money, like nothing, I can’t afford a flight over there,” he said.

“He was like ‘whatever you do, just come over here, we’ll figure something out’.”

Todd would then have a stroke of genius.

He continued, “I had a bit of a brainwave and I thought, ‘I know, I’ll call up my boss at the insurance company and I’ll basically say, we’re selling insurance here, think how many bikers are on the Isle of Man. You pay for my flights to the Isle of Man TT, and I will sell so much insurance.”

“So that was it, packed a backpack and headed over to the TT.”

“Slept on the floor of Sam West’s race truck for two weeks, and just, I got the bug for it.”

This trip inspired him to up the ante when it came to motorsport, with him recalling, “I stood at the top of Bray Hill, just after the start line and saw the bikes come by at 180, 190 mph, and instantly, I was like ‘I need to do this. This looks amazing’.”

Putting the pedal to the metal, he would travel to Northern Ireland to take part in the Skerries 100 road race.

“I went there and raced it and absolutely loved it,” he said.

“I think I got fourth or third in my first races there, on these bikes that were definitely not as good as everybody else’s.”

Despite winning small amounts of prize money, Davey had limited funds, telling the Full Chat hosts, “I genuinely lived off a loaf of bread and some jam. I lived in the back of my van.”

“I was sneaking into the local leisure centre in Northern Ireland to be able to get showered and stuff like that.”

“For me, yeah, sure, I’ll live in the back of my van for as long as it takes.”

His perseverance has paid off, and now living a much more comfortable lifestyle, he’s able to reflect on his father’s support.

“He’s still working really hard as he always has, but whenever he’s not at work, he’s at every race,” Davey said.

“He never misses the TT.”

Todd has even been able to secure his dad a top-end motorbike after he had sold his old one to pay for Davey’s training.

“I think I’ll spend the rest of my life repaying him for the sacrifices he made to get me to this point, you know, because without him and my mum and my grandparents, I wouldn’t be in this position.”