Dean Ferris will contest the final two rounds of the 2014 MXGP World Championship as part of the Red Bull Ice One Racing Husqvarna team, extending his four-race agreement to six.

Ferris was initially contracted to complete the European leg of the season in the place of injured South African Tyla Rattray, however he will now travel to Brazil and Mexico for the remaining rounds.

“I’m really excited to be finishing the GPs off with the Ice One Racing team,” Ferris said. “It’s great for me that they’ve extended my deal, which allows me to gain some more experience competing in the final two GPs. I’m really enjoying racing with the team and things are going well. Since the last GP I’ve been training hard and we’ve also done a fair bit of testing.

“I feel strong and I think my results from the German championship show that. With two new tracks for the last two GPs it’s a level playing field for everyone and I really want to end the year strong. Maybe a podium result is a big ask, but I got close in Finland and really want to challenging for top three results.”

Despite a relative lack of testing, the Husqvarna rider scored numerous top 10 results in the highly-competitive MXGP class on his FC 350. At round 13 of the championship in Finland, Ferris placed a very impressive sixth overall after finishing fifth in race two.

He also took a race win at last weekend’s round six of the ADAC MX Masters series at Gaildorf in Germany.

With countryman Todd Waters still recuperating from injury and Rattray departing the team altogether, it has been a natural decision to offer Ferris the opportunity to contest the final two rounds of the series in Brazil and Mexico.

“The team is really looking forward to finishing out the season with Dean,” team manager Antti Pyrhönen explained. “Despite joining us at the last minute he has showed great determination to improve.

“Claiming a very impressive sixth overall in Finland shows that Dean has the ability to race at the sharp-end of the field and we’d like to offer him the chance to do that in Brazil and Mexico. At last weekend’s ADAC MX Masters event in Germany he won the final race of the day and is very motivated to carry that form and speed into the GPs.”

On top of his MXGP duties, Ferris has been confirmed for Team Australia at the Motocross of Nations in Latvia on 27-28 September alongside Chad Reed and Matt Moss.

The penultimate round of the 2014 MXGP World Championship takes place in Brazil on 7 September.