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Australian Motocross

Despite the weekend not featuring a round of the MX Nationals, those in New South Wales were able to enjoy what was a near-national level state title round in Nowra.

Raceline Pirelli Suzuki’s Lawson Bopping won the Pro Open class from Serco Yoshimura Yamaha’s Kirk Gibbs and Yamaha privateer Aden de Jager, while Rockstar Motul Suzuki’s Dan McCoy rode a RM250 two-stroke to fourth overall. Another national rider in Luke Styke completed the top five.

In the Pro Lites it was Australian championship leader Matt Moss who chalked up another win for JDR Motorex KTM, ahead of Team 07 Axis Motorsports Honda’s Cody Mackie. Rounding out the podium was McCoy, who was again on the same 250 two-stroke. Mackie’s teammate Kieron Hall was fourth, with Styke fifth.

Moto one was actually won by Gibbs, however according to the results he didn’t finish the second moto of the day. We haven’t heard what happened at this stage.

One interesting thing with the state titles is that some of the leading Under 19s riders from the nationals actually race in the Pro Lites. Natonal series leader Errol Willis was seventh in moto one, but didn’t finish the second moto. As a reference, his best lap was just under three seconds off Moss’ quickest in that moto.

Kiwi Cody Cooper was also racing over the weekend, but he was actually defending his title in New Zealand’s Tarawera 100, which is an endurance style off-road race from what we understand. Cooper won it, but we’re pretty certain it was for a bit of fun rather than getting in some race practice before Moree next weekend!

The national launch for the 2012 model Kawasaki KX450F was held at Appin this week on Monday, marking the first time that either Dean Ferris or Billy Mackenzie had ridden the brand new production model. Both said they were big fans of it, as you’d expect, but there are no plans to make a last minute switch to the new model for either Moree or Coolum.

Instead, we suspect that you’ll see the majority of manufacturers debut their 2012 models during the five-round Super X season, which kicks off in October this year and runs over consecutive weekends.

Australian Supercross

Speaking of Super X, we thought we’d take a quick look at what the factory teams may look like come October’s opening round in Melbourne. Some are confirmed, some aren’t, but we’ll indicate the ones that are to be confirmed:

Monster Energy Kawasaki
Josh Hansen – 450 (TBC)
Billy Mackenzie – 450
Dean Ferris – 250
Phil Nicoletti – 250

CDR Rockstar Energy Yamaha
Jay Marmont – 450
Jake Moss – 450

Serco Yoshimura Yamaha
Kirk Gibbs – 250
Ford Dale – 250

Rockstar Motul Suzuki
Brett Metcalfe – 450 (TBC)
Dan McCoy – 250

JDR Motorex KTM
Tye Simmonds – 350 (TBC)
Ryan Marmont – 350
Dan Reardon – 450
Matt Moss – 250
Brenden Harrison – 250
Josh Cachia – 250

Carlton Dry Honda Thor Racing
Cheyne Boyd – 450
Todd Waters – 450
TBA – 250 (TBC)

We’ll have to wait and see who is confirmed, but when it comes to the American-based guys who are TBC, we’re taking educated guesses at these ones.

With Josh Hansen, you’d have to wonder why wouldn’t he be back to defend his title? With Monster Energy again backing the series and also the entire factory Kawasaki team in Australia this year, it just makes sense to bring Hanny back. That is, unless he switches brands back home!

As for Metcalfe, he’s said he’d like to do it and we know Suzuki Australia wants him to do it, so that’s just a matter of getting the deal sorted if they can. It makes you wonder who they’d place on the 450 if Metcalfe can’t be secured though. Perhaps McCoy could move up and they’d place someone else on the Lites bike, or Michael Byrne might be an option since he’s been on a Suzuki all year in the U.S.

And Simmonds? JDR admits they haven’t even thought about him returning at this stage since he’s focused on his rookie season in the AMA outdoors, plus the Aussie team is focused on the final rounds of the MX Nationals at this point. Still, the possibility of Simmonds returning hasn’t been completely ruled out and local fans would love to see him here.

Whatever the case, teams and riders have three months to work through the finer details of any pending deals to be put in place.

American Motocross

Australia’s Chad Reed is in the final stages of launching his new book, My Way. According to the TwoTwo Motorsports Facebook page, Reed and wife Ellie are currently doing the final proof read before it goes to print.

Reed has been Tweeting a lot recently via @CRtwotwo about a new outdoor track he’s been working on at his base in Florida. As always, Reedy has had his fellow Aussie and trusty training partner Michael Byrne right there riding with him, plus Mike Alessi has been again riding with Reed. Looks like they’re having fun doing it too!

We mentioned last week the very real possibility of Ryan Dungey switching to Red Bull KTM, reuniting with Roger DeCoster, and that’s again the word in the U.S. this week. Motocross Action has even gone as far to predict a special Dungey model of the 450 SX-F that will be right on the weight of the 350!

In fact, now that Dungey has been all but confirmed for departure from Suzuki (the press may be wrong – it’s happened before!), many are anticipating James Stewart to show up on a Suzuki soon. There have been rumours that he’s bought his own bike, and also rumours that Suzuki’s factory effort will lose Rockstar and/or Makita for next year. I guess it’s lucky Stewart has Red Bull backing then…

This weekend will see Honda’s Trey Canard return to action, a welcome returnee after injuring himself before the season even started while training for the outdoors. I have a feeling that, as the reigning Lites champion, he could surprise once he gets some races under his belt.

Australian Off Road

The battle between Motorex KTM Off Road Racing’s Toby Price and Chris Hollis has been a great one in 2011, and that continued early in the piece at last week’s Australian Four Day Enduro in Mackay. Price got the upper-hand in Queensland, but it seems Hollis’ confidence is growing all the time!

One of the more interesting storylines to emerge from the A4DE was the fact that Italian Alex Salvini won the E1 class for Husqvarna Racing, but had the title stripped since he’s from overseas. Instead, the official title went to Stefan Merriman.

Now I’m not 100 percent certain how enduro rules work (especially in the A4DE!), but Australian motocross and supercross had no less than three of its titles won by American residents in 2010.

This is what the official press release said on Monday following the event regarding the matter:

In Championship E1, it was Husqvarna rider Alex Salvini who took the class win. However, as Salvini is from Italy, he was ineligible to be awarded with the national title. Ballard’s Yamaha racer Stefan Merriman, who finished second in class to Salvini, was crowned the Championship E1 Champion.

Interestingly, Husqvarna Australia’s post-race press release didn’t mention that the title was instead awarded to Merriman and Yamaha because of Salvini’s nationality.

Freestyle Motocross

X Games is just around the corner in Los Angeles and we’ll again have an all-star line-up to be represented from Australia in the Moto X ranks.

Australia will have Cam Sinclair, Robbie Maddison, Blake Williams, Mark Monea and Jackson Strong in the Best Trick contest, making up over 50 percent of the eight-rider field! Best Whip will see Jarryd McNeil again in the mix, and Freestyle will have Bilko and Maddo doing us proud.

That’s it for another week, thank you as always for stopping by! Remember, tell your friends to check out MotoOnline.com.au for all the domestic and international dirt bike news we can provide.

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