As the reigning Pro Lites Australian motocross and supercross champion, big things were expected of Matt Moss this season upon joining JDR/J-Star/KTM in the U.S.

After a frustrating few rounds, Moss finally found his feet at Oakland last weekend as he raced to a solid fifth place in the Lites main event. It’s the start of big things to come for Moss, but still, he’s not yet getting too far ahead of himself.

MotoOnline.com.au called Moss this week to speak about his result and also to get the inside scoop on ‘that’ controversial clash he was involved in at Phoenix.

You had your best result so far in Oakland with fifth in the Lites main, so how did that feel for you, to get it together when it counted?

The night was great, you know. Looking back at the tapes now I’m a little ebit disappointed that I got fifth when the box was well within my reach. All in all though, it’s just getting better each weekend and I’m happy to be in that top five. With the amount of good riders over here, it’s a good goal of mine to get there.

You are fresh off two titles in Australia from last year, so what’s the transition been like to the AMA?

Yeah, there is a lot of fast guys and I knew that it was going to be hard. The hardest thing was just getting settled in over here with my girlfriend and I, getting a house and doing all that.

The riding wasn’t that hard because hopping off a KTM back home and getting on one here is all the same. So I’ve just been picking up on my riding and working on things I need to improve on. You know, I think it’s all going to start coming together.

What kind of program are you running over there? You obviously race every weekend, so how many days a week do you ride at the test track and who do you work closest with?

I work really close with Nate [Ramsey], sit down with him every Monday and have a meeting, go over the film from the weekend. We just look at the things I need to improve on because he’s been there and done that, so he can help me a lot. I also have my dad calling me all the time and he watches a lot of stuff and helps me out.

All in all I’ve just been doing a lot more riding. I ride three days a week at the KTM test track, riding with Dungey and Musquin, so it’s helping me a lot. Just picking up on my speed.

They sort of don’t make mistakes here, you know, they can go 15 laps without one mistake. I watched my tape from last weekend and I made 30 mistakes, so I have to eliminate all them problems and I think I can get on the box.

How important are starts there? I’ve seen you slice your way through the pack here to win, but starts are so much more critical over there for anyone.

Yeah, they are critical over here. You pretty much have to holeshot to win a race. There are 10 guys that can pretty much win the race, so if you’re back in 10th it’s hard to get on the box.

But still, you can do it, it’s just making it harder for yourself. I’m looking forward to getting the holeshot this weekend.

That incident between you and Sipes in Phoenix was a controversial one, so we have to touch on it. Give us your side of the story real quick.

Well, it sort of got the better of me, never ever being in a last chance qualifier. To make it in your dream sport over here in the U.S, obviously I did go in there to block pass him and make sure he couldn’t pass me back, but my wheel got stuck in his foot.

It looked a lot worse than what it was, but I took him down and took myself down, so I was disappointed not to make the main. I copped a bit of flack over it, but I’ve moved on and learnt from it so it won’t happen again. I just won’t be in that LCQ.

Finally, you’ve reached the first goal of a top five finish, so what’s the goal for the rest of supercross?

Just to hit the box, we’ve got two more rounds before the break. I would love to get on the top step, but still, the top five is great to get some points and move my way up in the championship standings.

You know, nothing worse than fifth and a top three would be great. I’m really looking forward to it, feel better on my bike and I’ve had a couple of good rides this week, so I’m really looking forward to getting on that top step.