Taking a look back at this same time last year, Kirk Gibbs was coming off the back of an impressive Conondale season opening Monster Energy MX Nationals victory in the MX2 class aboard his Serco Yamaha.

Gibbs had put together a strong 2012 pre-season and even pushed through a wrist injury he suffered just weeks before the opener to clinch his first win of the year – he was on top of his game in a familiar class, on familiar equipment.

Heading into 2013, Gibbs’s program has completely changed. Joining the all-new Rob Twyerould managed Motorex KTM team alongside Todd Waters in the MX1 class – the South Australian has stepped into uncharted territory and took a very different approach to his season.

“I was pretty comfortable where we were in 2012, we had a pretty good setting, so it wasn’t a massive amount of testing going on last year,” said Gibbs. “I was just down in South Australia for all of my off-season and everything went pretty smooth up until a couple of weeks before the first round.

“But this year it’s been a fair bit different. I moved back to Queensland and I’ve been over in New Zealand during the pre-season. And obviously I had that big crash at Coolum last year and didn’t get to ride Supercross, so I’ve had a fair bit of time off.”

Making the move to the KTM family for 2013, Gibbs explained that it was just a matter of learning the bike and finding a comfortable setup. His experienced team structure has proved vital in making his transition to the premier class as seamless as possible.

“It’s been more of just learning the bike and the team is awesome, it’s not like I had to learn anything with those guys – they’ve been great and so supportive. It’s just learning stuff about the bike and what I wanted to do with it.

“I’ve been doing a lot of testing and obviously the New Zealand stuff helped a lot. I’ve been training a lot with Todd and I think that has helped a lot. I haven’t done crazy amounts of motos yet, but I’m just trying to get myself sorted and hopefully work my way into the series.”

Reflecting on his stellar start to the 2012 season in comparison to his MX1 debut last weekend, Gibbs admits that his 12th place overall finish on debut is not what he was hoping for – but that surely hasn’t dampened the 24-year-old’s spirits in any way.

“Last year I took out the win, which was good, and obviously you just want to keep that momentum going once you get a win,” Gibbs commented. “But this year it’s obviously a different class and a pretty stacked class.

“The first round didn’t go the way I wanted, I think I just had a bit of first round jitters or something. A few things just weren’t going my way and I didn’t really click with the track.

“But I’ll keep my head up. I’m fit and healthy, still riding a dirt bike and that’s what I love to do. So I’ll just keep going to the track, putting the time in on the bike and just try to work on a few things that I think I struggled with and I think things will start turning around.”

“It might not be Murray Bridge, but I’ll just keep moving forward and as long as I keep healthy, I think towards the mid to end of this season I can start mixing it up with those front boys.”

Gibbs feels that having round one winner and teammate Todd Waters in his corner will be beneficial in his progress during the season. Working alongside the series leader on equal equipment should help Gibbs find that extra edge he is searching for in a bid to battle with the top dogs.

“Todd has been in that class for a long time now and this is my first year,” Gibbs added. “Even during the first four or five months until now, he’s been helping me. So it’s great having him on the team, obviously he’s an unreal rider and he’s come out on fire lately.

“He lights the practice track on fire too and it’s always me trying to chase him round, or I start a fair way ahead of him and he’s got to try and track me down. It’s good, he’s been with KTM before and he knows bits and pieces that I never really knew.

“You look at the lap times between practice tracks and on race day and you get pretty depressed, but it’s all good. Like I said, he’s going to help me out no matter what, it’s just the sort of guy that he is and I can’t thank him enough.”

Although Gibbs has made a slower start to the season than he’d like, expect to see the likeable rider to shine over the remaining nine rounds of racing. With the guidance of Twyerould, Jeff Leisk and his teammate Waters, Gibbs has all the tools at his disposal to create success in the near future.