Welcome to our third 2012 edition of the Moto Insider column right here on MotoOnline.com.au, coming direct to you from Murrieta in Southern California. In what is just a quick visit to the U.S. to gather content for the site, we’ve been flat out all week long making the most of being in motocross’ heartland.

And the highlight so far? No doubt watching Chad Reed race to his first win of the season at Los Angeles Dodger Stadium for TwoTwo Motorsports. It was the best that I’ve seen him ride supercross in a long, long time, charging through the pack and passing Ryan Dungey and James Stewart, amongst others, before riding away.

The confidence that Chad will take from that win so early in the season is vital. At Anaheim 1 he said it’ll take five wins to battle for this title, so to see him notch his first is a great step in this title chase. Dungey and Stewart filled the podium, while defending champion Ryan Villopoto was fourth after an opening lap crash for the second week in a row.

Stewart has actually crashed in all three main events so far this season while RV has gone down in two. Reedy has also had his fair share of crashes during the year, but luckily those have mainly been in heat races more so than the main events when the points are on the line.

The bottom line is that Chad Reed is well in contention for this title and at this point of the season, he says he’s more comfortable than he has been for a lot of years (if not ever). We had a huge and very insightful interview with him yesterday, so click here to check that out.

Brett Metcalfe enjoyed his best performance of the season with a fifth place, despite being struck with the flu in the lead-up to the race. He has a massive program behind him this year at Yoshimura Suzuki in what is a single rider team, but he is simply taking it race by race. As we all know, his real expectations to win come in May at Hangtown…

It was a spectacular round at Dodger Stadium and possibly the greatest AMA race that I have ever seen live. With a four-way battle for the lead taking place for parts of the race, it was all time. The only downside was the accident between Trey Canard and Ryan Morais, both of whom we send our best wishes to for speedy recoveries.

As for the other Aussies, Matt Moss was very solid at Dodger Stadium. He got tangled up on the opening lap but sliced his way through the pack to eighth, which is his best result yet. Seeing him do so in person reminded me just how capable Mossy is, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can get a start in a main event during the next few weeks.

Ryan Marmont crashed in the lead-up to the race and was forced out with a concussion, so he’s been undergoing tests this week already in a bid to return for Oakland this weekend. Doggy will be on track at Oakland and Anaheim 2, but then his wedding in Fiji clashes with San Diego, so A2 will likely be the last we see of him all season.

The word is that he’s on track for a Lites return back home, but neither Marmont or JDR Motorsports are yet to officially confirm that. What we do know is that if he is on a 250F come Conondale, the Lites class will be stacked with a nice mix of rising stars (Errol Willis/Luke Arbon), proven contenders (Kirk Gibbs/Kade Mosig) and relative veterans (Marmont and Cheyne Boyd), to name a few.

Before we shift gears to more Aussie content, I caught up with Cody Mackie today to put together our latest Privateer Profile, so check that out by clicking here. He’s yet to secure a ride at home, but likely won’t be racing AMA past the San Diego round early next month.

Back home in Australia, I spoke to Jay Marmont over the phone yesterday and he said that his testing program in Queensland has been put on standby due to the heavy rain that has struck the state recently. The Monster Kawasaki team are yet to really work toward a base setting on the KX450F with Marmont yet, but Jay is confident that he’s already adapting to the bike pretty well.

Marmont’s bike will look a lot like Ryan Villopoto’s in 2012 since they’re both defending championships in their respective series, but we are still yet to see an official image of Jay’s new ride. Believe me I’ve been pushing to get them released, but the team isn’t yet prepared to before their graphics and final sponsors are finalised.

Many of Australia’s top motocross and off-road athletes have been taking part in a training program at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra during the past week, including CDR Rockstar Energy Drink Yamaha’s new recruit Lawson Bopping. He seems to be settling right in at Yamaha already, but we’ll see his real form in some pre-season races.

Speaking of form, Kade Mosig won the Coffs Harbour Stadiumcross on debut last week for Monster Energy Kawasaki in the Lites class while travelling to Queensland. Jake Moss won the Pro Open class on a borrowed KTM 450 SX-F, but didn’t have that kind of luck in the Lites where he was racing a 250 SX two-stroke.

I mentioned last week that Moss could be joining the Hart and Huntington team alongside Dan McCoy and Lewis Woods, however the latest word is that he’s preparing to do his own thing at this stage. Whatever he does, fingers crossed he can remain fit all season and really build momentum with race wins. You don’t earn any podium in the 450 Class of AMA Motocross without being world class, so he deserves some luck on his side.

Williams Event Management has been filtering out details regarding the outdoors recently. A new timing system with TAG Heuer should be a step forward (finally live timing online!), plus the venues and formats have been released. See all three stories in our Breaking News section during the past week.

I’m excited personally to see what the year ahead brings, because I know that WEM has been putting in a huge effort preparing the series so far. There are returning tracks and possibly new venues to the series, but all in all, it’s one massive show on wheels that Australia can be proud of.

We’re hearing that Billy Mackenzie will trade his customary 211 for the number 18 this year. It’s also been said that Brad Anderson will race with number 60 in his first full season. Apart from that, Cheyne Boyd has locked in number three, but that has traditionally been Ryan Marmont’s digit and he too could be returning to the Lites. Somebody is going to have to find a different number.

The big question back home is whether or not Tye Simmonds and/or Dan Reardon will be riding the Factory Edition 450 SX-F models in the outdoors. Since Simmonds had a 350 SX-F (how quickly they’ve disappeared in domestic racing!) pre-production in 2010, don’t be surprised if he has the 450 as well. I did ask the guys at JDR if they were racing them, but they are going to have meetings with KTM over the coming weeks.

Right here on MotoOnline we’ll have all the pre-season news as it happens, plus much more, so keep track of it all as we continue to count down the season ahead.

By the way, other Aussies we’ve caught up with and filmed some content for the coming weeks are Josh Strang and Robbie Maddison, so stay tuned for that. We’re currently working on a ‘Beyond the Helmet’ type series for 2012, which will hopefully give MotoOnline visitors an insight to the life these guys live over here.

That’s all once again for this week in the Moto Insider, thank you as usual for stopping by and remember to check out all of our updates that we’re piecing together for this year – no less than three regular feature-type stories/films/galleries per day, as well as a minimum of four news stories. That’s a heck of a lot of moto info right there!

In between all that, remember to check out our Facebook and Twitter social networking sites for all the news and images from behind the scenes 24/7. We’re continuing to boost this side of the content.