As Dubbo’s season opener of the 2012 Australian Supercross Championships nears, Tye Simmonds of the Honda/Red Bull/Simmonds Racing team considers the event to be rather important.

After finishing a close second behind Jay Marmont in the 2011 supercross series, Simmonds will enter this year’s event as a hot favourite for the title.

Hailing from the small town of Bourke, just 400km from Dubbo, the opening round will serve as his home race and give the 20-year-old some extra motivation to lay down a solid performance.

“I’m looking forward to getting out to Dubbo for the opening round, each round is going to be so crucial because of the tighter championship so it will be important to be consistent,” said Simmonds.

“We’ve been putting a lot of work into getting my bike ready and now I’ll spend the next week or so just getting out there and riding some tracks to get myself sorted.”

Simmonds will not be taking the field of competition lightly heading into round one of the series.

“It’s going to be tough,” he added. “I think the riders would rate the field as stronger than last year and there are lots of guys out there hungry to win.”

Stay tuned to MotoOnline.com.au for coverage of round one as the Australian Supercross Championships kicks off on Saturday 13 October.