The MEGA Bulk Fuels Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team will add highly-rated MX1 international Brett Metcalfe to their rider roster for the remaining five rounds of the 2017 Motul MX Nationals series.

Following the recent exit of Russian Aleksandr Tonkov from the Troy Carroll-managed factory Kawasaki outfit, talks began with the former SD3 Husqvarna rider who was on the search for an MX1 seat for the remaining events.

“I talked to Brett when I knew what was going on and obviously we weren’t having much success with Aleksandr Tonkov,” Carroll told MotoOnline.com.au. “He clearly didn’t want to be living in Australia at this point, so we spoke [with Metcalfe] and nothing really came about until Wednesday or Thursday last week when he sent me a text asking if I was still looking for a rider and I said 100 percent, I am.”

Locking in a deal that will see Metcalfe finish out the 2017 motocross season with the team alongside Nathan Crawford, the South Australian was immediately provided with the team’s factory-spec KX450F to begin training and testing.

“We just got the thing going and he’s down testing at the moment,” continued Carroll. “It’s great to have an experienced and well-matured rider like Brett on the MEGA Bulk Fuels Monster Energy Kawasaki – it’s just exciting to have two solid riders on the race team.”

With the team’s best result of the season coming at Conondale where Crawford claimed fourth overall, Carroll – a multi-time national champion himself – expressed the importance of improved results in the upcoming five MX Nationals rounds.

“It’s extremely important for us because we had such a bad start to the season,” he added. “We need to redeem ourselves and make sure that nobody loses faith in what we do as a team and that’s why we’ve got to this extent to make sure that we have someone as capable as Brett.”

Metcalfe commented: “For me to jump onto this ride when this opportunity came up was a good fit. We were both halfway through the season and I needed a ride so it matched up very well! I’m familiar with the Kawasaki brand and some of the sponsors.

“The challenge will be getting up to race speed as quick as we can and from there we will contend for race wins. In that sense the competition has some momentum under their wings and I’ll be playing catch up, but I’ll have a professional race team behind me so I’m confident that I will pull some good results by the end of the season.”

It’s understood Metcalfe was initially in search of a seat that would extend through the Australian Supercross Championship and through 2018, however the official Kawasaki deal to complete the remaining rounds of motocross was the ideal ride that meterialised during the current mid-season break. His debut will come at Nowra on Sunday, 2 July.