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Australian Motocross

Has Jay Marmont left his run too late in the Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals? With two wins in a row on a national level, plus his Manjimup 15,000 and Queensland state title win last month, the CDR Rockstar Energy rider has hit his peak form.

And considering the uncertainty that the four-moto formats of the MX Nationals produce, it certainly doesn’t seem unrealistic for Marmont to be able to close the 32-point advantage that longtime series leader Dean Ferris enjoys.

Realistically, the series is anybody in the top four’s at this point, with Ferris, Josh Coppins, Billy Mackenzie and Marmont all within striking distance as we head into Moree’s penultimate round in a few weeks.

When we look to Moree, the favourite has to be the in-form Marmont. Cast your mind back to 12 months ago and Moree was in fact Marmont’s first and only overall win of the season!

This year though, it’s Ferris who’s in a similar situation to what Marmont was back then. The Monster Energy Kawasaki rider has come agonisingly close to winning various overalls this year, but hasn’t yet done so. Still, he has the red plate and that’s what really counts.

Wodonga was a difficult round of sorts for both Ferris and his teammate Mackenzie, both not having things go their way on race day. Ferris was upbeat at the end of the round though, admitting that he’ll take a top five if that has to count as his ‘bad’ round of the year.

BillyMac was suffering from arm-pump – as many were in the cool conditions that we always seem to experience in Albury. He struggled with starts, but in comparison to last year he didn’t seem to have the outright speed up his sleeve to make things happen.

In moto two on Sunday he put an aggressive pass on Marmont and looked as though he was going to charge toward the front, trailing Kiwi contenders Coppins and Cody Cooper in third. However the two up front pulled away, and Marmont eventually made his way back past and put a serious gap on the Scotsman as well. It was at that point when you could tell something was not quite right for the 211.

It really is turning into a battle of the teammates this year as CDR Rockstar Energy Yamaha looks to fend off the Monster Energy Kawasaki team for a fourth straight crown with Marmont. This one’s going right down to the wire and is no doubt one of the most hard-fought series in years.

You also have to remember that this battle is personal on some levels. Monster Energy Kawasaki team manager Troy Carroll won the majority of his 12 national titles as a racer for CDR team boss Craig Dack at Yamaha, before being let go at the end of the 2006 season.

At that point Carroll formed his own privateer team and has progressed from there to where he’s at now as the manager of Kawasaki’s factory team, now going very much head-to-head with Dack and you know he’d like nothing more than to take that number one plate from Dack after coming so close last year with Mackenzie.

Many would have seen the Race Recap interview we did yesterday with Matt Moss, who revealed that his deal with JDR Motorsports to move back to the U.S. next year is basically signed, sealed and delivered. If you missed it, check it out for yourself by clicking here.

You have to feel for Jake Moss, the Serco Yoshimura Yamaha rider who was ruled out of Wodonga following a crash in moto one on Sunday morning. It looks as though he’s avoided major injury despite initial concerns that he’d reinjured his shoulder, and he’ll return in a few weeks at Moree as long as scans this week don’t discover anything too serious.

The concern for Moss when he was suspected to be injured spread pretty wide on the weekend, because even though he’s been ruled out of the Pro Lites title in the outdoors, he’s confirmed to be joining Jay Marmont at CDR Rockstar Energy Yamaha for Super X in place of Coppins. That series has to be his main priority at this point after challenging for the title last year with Suzuki.

We spotted these sweet helmets (below) that LA Designs has painted for Carlton Dry Honda Thor Racing teammates Cheyne Boyd and Todd Waters. Now, we’re not sure if they’ll debut them in the outdoors or save them for Super X, but they look epic!

As the MX Nationals wind down for 2011, plans are beginning to be put in place for next season already. The big topic doing the rounds is formats – will they stick to the short, sharp four-moto structure in 2012? It doesn’t look like WEM will be. We’re continuously hearing rumours that at least one 30-minute moto will be back on the schedule per round, perhaps combined with a pair of 15-minute motos.

WEM hasn’t confirmed anything at this point, but there has been a lot of discussion to date and it’s believed they’re looking to find a happy medium between great on-track action for the fans, and credible racing for the riders and teams who put so much effort in to make the show what it is. Watch this space…

Just a reminder, in case you haven’t been watching SPEED News Australia every Wednesday evening at 7.00pm AEST, the news-based motorsport program has been covering the MX Nationals series all year long with race reports following every round. It’ll be on once again tonight with all the action from Moree, so make sure you tune in.

American Motocross

Six rounds down, six rounds to go – Chad Reed is well and truly on track to capture a second career AMA Pro Motocross Championship. We never like to count chickens before they hatch, but the TwoTwo has been at his consistent best this season in the outdoors to win four of the opening six rounds in 2011.

With a weekend off coming right up, Reed has actually headed to the Bahamas for a vacation of sorts with his family, marking his first real time off since opting to form Two Two Motorsports in October last year. We could see a rejuvenated Reed for the second half of the season.

Brett Metcalfe lived up to his word at RedBud that he’d be able to score a good result, and apart from Reed, Ryan Villopoto and Ryan Dungey, he’s right there as the best of the rest. It’s getting hotter over there as the rounds go on, and that’s when the dedication of Metty really shines through, so don’t rule him out of a few podiums before the season’s out.

JDR/J-Star/KTM was back on track this weekend with Aussie rookie Tye Simmonds, and it’s expected PJ Larsen may be back on deck following the weekend off. With Matt Moss expected to join the team next year we’ll see at least three riders on JDR for 2012, but chances are there will be an additional Open class rider alongside Simmonds as well.

The Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki team has been unbeaten this year in the outdoors, with Blake Baggett, Tyla Rattray and series leader Dean Wilson performing exceptionally well so far. Wilson has been consistent to date, but Baggett’s explosive speed has been something else this year.

Speaking of next year and KTM, Ken Roczen has confirmed that he’ll be in the U.S. both indoors and out with Red Bull KTM. Roczen will be sure to challenge the Kawasakis when the time comes, but what’s even bigger news is that Ryan Dungey’s chances at switching to KTM seem to be increasing by the day. Credible sources say that his deal to join Roger DeCoster in orange is pretty much finalised.

That leaves us to wonder what Suzuki will do. Metcalfe is a good rider indoors and out, but isn’t quite on the level that Dungey is on to lead the team. We’ve all heard the Stewart to Suzuki rumours, but what about Suzuki to Stewart? What I mean is, we’re hearing his JSE team could be the official factory Suzuki team from next year onwards…

Before we switch gears here, all of us at MotoOnline.com.au send our thoughts to the family and friends of Josh Lichtle, who tragically lost his life while racing at RedBud on Saturday.

Australian Off Road

The prestigious Australian Four Day Enduro will be run and won this weekend in Mackay, finally taking place after severe weather forced it to be postponed from the Easter Long Weekend.

I spoke to defending A4DE winner Toby Price yesterday afternoon while he was on a track walk, and he said that it’s shaping up to be an ultra-fast track for the week. Considering he’s coming off desert races at Hattah and Finke, high speed shouldn’t be a problem for Price, but it may be for some of his opponents who have been focusing on the tight nature that usually makes up the AORC events.

Price and teammate Jarrod Bewley have had a heck of a week since Hattah on Sunday, riving back from Mildura on Sunday night and then flying out of Sydney first thing Monday morning to make it to Mackay for the A4DE. After a slow start to the year in the off-road racing scene, they’re now getting all the racing they could ask for!

A notable performer at Hattah was Australian Supersport Championship contender Nick Waters, who finished a very credible 10th in the Ironman race. Growing up in a family of dirt track riders turned road racers down there in Mildura, Waters surprised more than a few people with his solid result on Sunday.

That’s all for another week here at Moto Insider, but as always we’ll be back next week with all the information we can find! By the way, if you’re looking for more information from behind the scenes that we may not post here on the site, Like us on Facebook by simply searching MotoOnline.com.au.

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