Features 21 Feb 2015

Moto 360

An all-access view of Australian dirt bikes, presented by Alpinestars.

Can you believe February is almost in the books for 2015 already? Wow, time is flying by, and in just five short weeks the MX Nationals will be underway locally at Horsham in Victoria. For Australia, this is the race that gets the racing season going altogether.

AMA Supercross is just about eight rounds in and the important New Zealand Motocross Championship reaches its halfway point with round two on Sunday.

And by this time next week, the MXGP World Championship will have commenced in Qatar under lights – we’re extremely excited for that! Simon Makker did a really nice Countdown feature on some of the best match-ups to come on Thursday, so be sure to take a look at that when you get a moment.

Source: KTM.

Source: KTM.

While our focus, being an Australian-based website, is of course on the domestic competition, it’s been a great ‘off-season’ for us putting pretty much all of the 2015 motocross models through their paces and we still have some key enduro models to come.

Right around the corner is the 2015 Suzuki RMZ450X launch next month in the Victorian high country, which we’ll have national racer Stefan Granquist attending on MotoOnline’s behalf. As a racer, it will be interesting to get his take on the model.

Just this week we had Dylan Wills ride the 2015 Suzuki RM-Z450 and RM-Z250 in Newcastle with Jay Foreman, while Kale Makeham was also on hand during the test. By all accounts, he’s quickly settling in on the factory Suzuki ahead of his MX1 debut.

And not forgetting the off-road guys, because already Enduro-X has a round completed and there will be plenty of action to be covered across the course of the year. It really is a privilege to cover such a wide variety of talent in world class series, on world class teams and on ultimate machinery.

Recently we’ve had Adam Spence of Plan V out filming bits and pieces for the year ahead, including a selection of First Person films with Luke Arbon, Makeham and Dan McCoy. These have been a popular addition and we’ll keep them coming all season long when we bump into racers around the traps.

McCoy confirmed that he will go around again, this time on a privateer Yamaha under the SFC Racing banner with plenty of resources at his disposal. At 30 years of age, it’s a case of now or never and he’s another of many in a confident frame of mind for the new year of racing.

Source: Wilson MX.

Source: Wilson MX.

Also earlier this week it was officially confirmed that the Queensland-based Wilson MX team has gained both Penrite Oil and more Honda support as their primary MX2 outfit this year. With Luke Wilson and Geran Stapleton signed, they should have another strong year ahead.

There are a number of privateer teams that we’re yet to hear about officially, but as we move closer to the opener the picture will soon become clearer. As usual, that info will likely trickle out over social media for a first look and then news will become more official from there.

Make sure you check out all of MotoOnline.com.au’s social networking channels and be sure to Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for even more behind the scenes insights. Just search MotoOnline.

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