The fact that British Talent Cup Champion Rory Skinner has struggled to get a ride for 2019 says a lot about the state of racing.

Following a dramatic end-of-season victory at Valencia the 17-year-old Scotsman was hoping, and indeed had been lead to believe, it was an entry ticket to Moto3.

Not so. It also left him too late to organise a return to the FIM's Junior Moto3 Championship with another team, although a number expressed interest, and  he is ending up in the British Supersport Championship.

Details of the team, being  put together by his father Mike, will be announced soon but they are desperately looking for funding to bridge the gap between what they have raised so far and seventy thousand quid, or so, it will take for a full season.

Mike acknowledges it is certainly better than nothing, many top riders including Cal Crutchlow having emerged from the series: "Rory is really looking forward to it. He had three wildcard rides last year and, to many  people’s surprise, and me because it was an old bike, he did really well.”

However, after three years competing as a Red Bull Rookie, the Junior World Championship and in 2018 the British Talent Cup, he has seen his competitors, against whom he could more than hold his own, ending up in works teams.

But they are generally from either Spain or Italy with the occasional surprise from Turkey or elsewhere. So where are we going wrong? What are our governing bodies, and promoters who make a living out of racing, doing about it?

Racing Steps, which gave a lot of support to Rory and other young riders and drivers, is now defunct. Credit to MSVR who, together with Dorna, funded the British Talent Cup but if it does not lead to something bigger then what is the point? It is also a very expensive exercise whose future is by no means guaranteed.

A more simple answer can be found if you visit Spain or Italy and see the number of kids whizzing around on scooters. For them, to be riding round at 14 is more or less is normal. In the UK, two wheels has become an old man’s game. And motorcycle sport gets generous support from the Spanish government. Not here.

In our country, which has produced some of the greatest riders of all time, any activity on two wheels is frowned upon, or simply ignored, by those with money be they government departments or business corporations. We are seen as kamikaze pilots, Hell's Angels or just a bloody nuisance.

And yet as congestion on our roads and streets becomes a huge economic, and political issue, could a horrible  thought become salvation. Electric bikes. What has become seen as dirty, noisy and dangerous might now become just as acceptable, and welcome, as bicycles were electric power is taking over from pedal power.

As the gulf between an electric bike and an electric motorbike narrows could the days of a cheap, convenient and sexy form of transport become appealing once again to our youngsters leading to us producing, once again, teenage champions.

The weather? We will be saved by climate change.