The mid-season break of the Monster Energy MX Nationals series is winding down, with Swan Hill’s sixth round just around the corner next Sunday in the series’ second visit to the Victorian venue.

These next three rounds of the series will be, as usual, very pivotal because before we know it we’ll be at the penultimate round in Gladstone. If you’re not right in the hunt at that point, chances are you’re going to be a long shot at best for Coolum.

Last year at Swan Hill Moss won both motos for the overall, but Kirk Gibbs was also solid and on the podium in his rookie season. Mackenzie was also on the pace in fourth, so expect him to feature come next weekend.

Of course the two ‘wildcards’ will be the NPS Monster Energy Kawasakis of Jake Moss and Adam Monea. Moss was eighth at Swan Hill last year and Monea logged a double DNF, but you just can’t rule them out on any given weekend this year. Monea is quick there, but his bike expired will running inside the top five in 2013.

Before then though, team manager Troy Carroll will be more concerned about the NSW vs his beloved QLD in the State of Origin tonight! With eight years of bragging rights to his credit, could NSW bring QLD’s reign to a crushing end tonight at ANZ Stadium? Fingers crossed!

Ever since Penrite Honda’s Cody Cooper confirmed he will miss the rest of the outdoors, Ben Townley has been the focal point as a potential replacement. But a spanner has been thrown in the works this week, with speculation on the PulpMX Show yesterday that American Honda in also interested in him replacing Justin Barcia in the US!

If Townley does in fact head back to the US despite his so-called retirement (and that’s a big if), like Simon Makker mentioned last week, Lawson Bopping is the fan favourite for the seat. But as we’ve said all along, Townley initially didn’t have any fulltime comeback plans on the agenda so to do that would be a major step.

Swan Hill will see the return of Daniel McCoy and Dylan Long to the MX2 ranks, while it’s been confirmed that Wade Hunter (knees) and MXD racer Brock McLeary (shoulder) are out with injuries of their own. What we’re hearing is McCoy won’t be TM-mounted in his return – and his Instagram account indicates that – and instead he’ll be on his favoured personal RM250.

Okay, here’s Makker with his report for this week…

It’s been a fairly quiet week on the moto news front as the racers concentrate on getting rid of any injury niggles and finding that extra 0.5 seconds of a lap in order to keep themselves in the mix.

The second half of the MX Nationals starts next weekend (I know, right? Where the hell did five weeks go?!) at Swan Hill, and everyone wants to hit the ground running.

One kid who’s been off the radar, but will return with a vengeance to the MX1 class next weekend is KTM Motocross Racing’s Ford Dale. Ford, who’s been out with yet another knee injury he sustained during the New Zealand Motocross Championship at the beginning of the year has been punching out some hard laps on the Sunny Coast and is eager to get back into the thick of the action.

Ford was initially going to race the Majimup 15,000 the week after the Wanneroo round of the MX Nationals but opted to play it safe at the last minute and didn’t head over. It was a smart move, I think, as not only did it give Ford more time to get 100 percent race-ready, but it also ruled out any possibility of him doing more damage to his already tender pins.

Speaking of Ford, he and his former racing flatmate Harley Quinlan have released their Racing 4 Disabled website (www.r4d.com.au) this week. R4D is a foundation they’ve set up to help support fallen riders who suffer spinal injuries or sustain a disability as a result of racing, such a Harley did himself in 2010.

It’s an awesome initiative and has already received some great support from the industry, but I encourage you all to take some time to check out the site and put up some financial support towards this worthy cause. At the end of the day motocross is one big family and when a family member falls, we need to band together and continue to support them on their road to recovery.

Finally, I had a good chat with Husqvarna’s MXD title contender Nathan Crawford last night for an upcoming Profile piece I’m writing on him. For a 16-year-old, that kid has a freakish maturity about his outlook on life and racing.

And he’s quick to point out that it’s come about from hanging with Monster Energy Kawasaki’s team manager Troy Carroll and his racer Jake Moss. Jake and Nato are like peas in a pod and having someone with his experience and speed in the youngster’s corner is going to do him a world of good when the MXD championship recommences at Conondale.

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