Congratulations to Tom Holland (left) who passed his IAM RoadSmart Advanced Rider Test with a F1RST.

Gaining a F1RST Pass is a huge achievement – well done Tom!

A F1RST Pass is one where the rider scores a 1 in every category (a maximum of two categories are permitted a score of 2 each, but exclude Legality and Slow Manoeuvring which must score a 1). An excellent result as achieving a F1RST Pass requires hard work and considerable effort to achieve the required skills.

Congratulations to National Observer Gary Wandless for guiding Tom to test standard, to National Observer Iain Jeffries for conducting his Pre-Test Ride Check and a big thank you to Chris Smith (right) for conducting his IAM RoadSmart Advanced Riding Test.

Tom's Story

My name is Tom and I am 21 years old. I have just completed my IAM Roadsmart Advanced Rider Course with top marks with the guidance of my mentor, Gary.

How I got started

My Dad has been into motorcycles since before I was born so he was the main driver of my passion for bikes. Between the two of us we have our fair share of motorcycles.

My motorcycling story starts at the age of three years old; I had a bicycle with stabilisers and my sister’s bike did not have any. So, being competitive as I am, I taught myself to ride her bike to prove I could. The reward for that from my dad was a Yamaha PW 50 and so the story begins.

I was fortunate enough to have a large garden, which allowed me to ride that bike at every opportunity I had. I graduated to 85 cc motorcross bikes beyond that and simply fell in love with anything with an engine.

I became involved in schoolboy motorcross and trials riding and was lucky enough to ride all over the place, as a shared passion with my dad. This allowed me to build my skill level of motorcycle control to very high levels. By the age of 15, I had my own 250 cc trials bike and spent a lot of time off road riding with my dad.

I also rode mountain bikes competitively which also helped with my motorcycling abilities. I did have a significant crash and broke a vertebrae and my collar bone in a downhill race however, this did not dampen my passion for bikes but should have sounded alarm bells about my attitude towards danger.

Starting on the road

I started my road riding career in April 2021 at the age of 16 with the CBT training, then started riding my moped on the road. On reflection this was the only official motorcycle training I ever received for on road motorcycle riding. I gained my full A1 licence at the first opportunity without undertaking any formal training then embarked on ownership of lots of different bikes. I took my A2 licence the following year which allowed access to more powerful machines for 2 years before attaining my full A licence in March of 2026.

I had obtained all these licences without formal training. This, coupled with my adventurous and competitive nature, probably contributed to the number of incidents and near-misses I had in this short road riding career. I think I had some sort of incident on every bike I had owned including writing off my beloved Aprilia Pegaso 650 in a jousting contest with a car. This happened just 1 month after moving from my CBT/ A1 (15HP) obtaining my A2 (47hp) licence.

Joining the IAM

So how did I come to undertake the IAM Roadsmart Advanced Rider Course is the question everybody asks? Honest answer My MUM! She was terrified that I was going to get myself into trouble on my bike if I kept riding in the style I was. She saw the Biker Ten full scholarship offer for riders 18- 30 years old on Facebook and, being afraid for my longevity with my crash record, she signed me up for the free taster session.

I went along to the free session not knowing what to expect and was paired with my observer Gary. I found that the session was helpful even though I had significant machine handling and riding skills. It highlighted a number of areas that I could make significant improvements in to help raise my road sense and road riding level.

Once enrolled on the programme I continued my journey with Gary as my mentor; we got on very well and I had my eyes opened as to how I needed to calm down and start to look at how I could adapt my riding to become a much safer, more conscious and competent rider.

Where I am now

I now feel that I am a much better rider than I was, and I am sure that it will allow me to enjoy my riding for as long as I want to without the incidents I previously would have found myself in. I have thoroughly enjoyed the whole process, it has given me skills I will take with me for the rest of my motorcycling life.

I would like to thank Gary for mentoring me and imparting his knowledge from his career in the police force. I would also like to thank DWDAM and Biker 10 for the opportunity to complete my training within their scholarship program and I believe that more people should get involved as everyone can benefit from the more in detail training that the IAM offer over the DVSA Test.

Gary’s comments

Tom was a very skilled motorcyclist before we met, he can do things I am far too old to even try!

The main thing with Tom was his level of road sense. At his age we all feel invincible, we have no fear of “what if it goes wrong,” we just believe that we know best and that it won’t go wrong.

His journey through the training has allowed him to learn from other people’s experiences rather than having to make the mistakes himself. He learnt very quickly and has put the ethos of being an advanced rider into his riding and is a much better safer and thinking rider. He is still the very quick, skilful rider he was, but he now has the ability to use his skills to keep him safer, not just faster. We certainly had some fun along the way.