Luke Arbon, a now familiar name within the motocross community, has shown flashes of brilliance throughout the past few seasons, landing podiums and scoring race wins along the way.

For the 2012 season, Arbon made the move up from the MX Development-based GYTR Yamaha team, to a full-time MX2 gig at Craig Anderson’s Berry Sweet/Lucas Oil Yamaha team.

“I think the transition to Ando’s team was great you know, he’s a great guy and he’s been there and done it all,” Arbon explained. “So it’s good to have him in my corner, for sure.

“As for leaving GYTR Yamaha, it was just an Under 19s gig, so I still got to stay with Yamaha which I was happy about.”

Arbon appreciates having such an experienced and knowledgeable person such as Anderson in his corner at each round.

“Having Ando in my corner is such a great help,” commented Arbon. “He’s so supportive and he’s not so much results driven, I think if I was in any other position I’d have a lot of pressure on me. Whereas riding for Ando it’s just really me putting all of the pressure on myself.”

The 20-year-old admits that making the move into the Monster Energy MX Nationals MX2 class for his rookie year is proving to be harder than he anticipated.

“Stepping up to MX2 has been tough, I’ve had a pretty up and down year, results sort of haven’t really been what I was expecting,” Arbon reflected. “But I’m looking forward to hopefully finishing off these last two rounds strong.

“I definitely haven’t got the results that I’ve wanted and I don’t think the team has wanted. But I feel that he is there to help me progress and hopefully we can get through it and start doing better.”

Arbon’s hopes to be battling inside the top five were quickly put on the back burner at the opening round of the series at Conondale in Queensland.

The extensive depth of talent being proved to be a considerable difference over the MX Development class. Currently sitting 12th overall in the points chase, Arbon hopes to use this season as a learning experience.

“In the back of my mind I really wanted to be top five, but after the first round I got a bit of a shock with the speed of the atleast the top 10-15 guys,” admitted Arbon. “It’s just hard, my starts have been off and that just makes it hard from there.

“So I’m definitely disappointed in where I am sitting in the championship. But I just have to put it behind me and try to learn from the good that can come from the championship I suppose.”

Arbon, originally from Gawler in South Australia, has been on the move around the country over the past years. The decision was made in 2012 to head back to his hometown and regain a base for himself to work from.

“I just wanted to change it up, I’d been living in Queensland and all different places all of the time,” said Arbon. “I just sort of wanted to try and get a base again, so I moved home.

“I feel it’s a good move and I’m just struggling to find that one thing to get me up there in the results. Moving home has been good, I’ve got my own track and can sort of just have my own time.

“I also don’t have to worry about all the politics and that side of things, and it has just been a lot easier not having to travel so far to tracks and stuff like that.”

After finishing fifth overall in the Supercross Lites standings for 2011, along with scoring a podium finish, Arbon will look forward to the all-new Australian Supercross Championship to commence.

“I’ve raced the last three years in the Lites class during supercross, so I’m really looking forward to supercross,” Arbon said. “I’ve always loved jumping, ever since I started riding a bike when I was eight years old. I love the technical aspect of supercross, not everyone can just go out and be good at it.

“I ended up getting a podium last year and finished the season in fifth, so I’m definitely aiming for a top five result. I’m going to train hard and try to get a good result in that for sure.”