It has been the week of announcements in Australian motocross, with many of the major teams finally announcing their racing programs even though most of the information had been leaked prior. Still, there’s nothing like official details from the teams themselves and we’re pumped for the 2013 season ahead.

We now have Carlton Dry Honda (Ben Townley, Ford Dale), CDR Yamaha (Lawson Bopping, Billy Mackenzie), Motorex KTM (Todd Waters, Kirk Gibbs), Serco Yamaha (Luke Styke, Luke Clout), GYTR Yamaha (Jay Wilson, Joel Dinsdale) all announced.

On top of that, Yamaha will hold an official launch for their teams at Raymond Terrace on 26 February. Interestingly, the invite finally confirms that CDR Yamaha will run the official off-road team alongside its motocross/supercross program in 2013. More on that when we have it.

Motul Pirelli Suzuki’s announcement is right around the corner now that they have agreed to terms with Matt Moss and Cody Cooper, plus you’d think Monster Energy Kawasaki would be close to officially confirming their line-up of Jay Marmont and Adam Monea.

The whole Suzuki/Moss saga was an interesting one, because although everybody thought a deal was done before supercross last year, they were yet to actually sign a contract. As negotiations stalled, Suzuki made an effort to sign Brett Metcalfe, but that didn’t eventuate. The end result? Moss will be back with Suzuki and I think it’s a good outcome for both.

While it would have been amazing to see Metty go head-to-head with Townley and co back home, he has his heart set on gaining another win in the US and of course his wife’s family is all based there. It’s the pinnacle of the sport and he’s determined to show he can once again be competitive if he can secure a seat. Apart from that, you could see him in Canada later this year.

I wanted to back up a bit and make note of the GYTR Yamaha team of Wilson and Dinsdale, because this is a very strong combo that Scott Bishop has lined up for 2013. Wilson will be heading to NZ for two rounds of their outdoors along with Mike Ward, which will give him a nice head start before the MX Nationals commence.

Bishop also confirmed to me this morning that Jake Emanuelli will return for this year with Yamaha support on a YZ250 two-stroke. It will be exceptionally good to see him return following his serious injuries sustained during supercross in 2011.

One announcement that’s imminent right now is Josh Cachia to Carlton Dry Honda in the Lites class. This rumour has been escalating quickly, but nobody is really prepared to comment right now. Remember, Cachia rode for Yarrive Konsky early in his career and the team is the defending champion both in motocross and supercross.

We’ve had a couple of really interesting interviews already this week, one with Cooper following his NZ outdoor opening round win, and another with Mackenzie regarding his CDR Yamaha ride. Cooper was absolutely flying at Timaru last weekend according to reports and he will be one to benefit big time from the two-moto format.

As for BillyMac, he seems to be thriving on the challenge that lies ahead with Craig Dack’s team. He knows he needs to challenge for the title and he is understanding of the opportunity that CDR has given him outdoors. A world class racer and former GP winner, expect Billy to be back at his best when the gates drop at Raymond Terrace.

There’s a big advantage for those guys racing the NZ nationals as a warm-up for the MX Nationals and it will show at the opener. Obviously it’s pretty straightforward for the Kiwis to race at home, but I think it’s genius for Yamaha to send Billy with JCR Yamaha and also for KTM to have both Waters and Gibbs over there. Aussies racing in NZ will only become more common in upcoming seasons.

It could also propose a risk as well, as we saw with Townley on Sunday. He crashed in a heavily-watered section of race track and word quickly spread that the 101 (well, number one in NZ!) had gone down hard. Just how far did word spread? I had two people come up to me in the press box at San Diego supercross asking for a Townley update following his crash back home! Glad you’re okay, BT.

Before I send this over to Makker, we had a surprise announcement yesterday afternoon that the Australian Supercross Championships will commence at Hidden Valley Raceway in the Northern Territory on 14-15 September. The reception so far? Mixed.

While it’s a great thing to see the supercross staged alongside the Australian Superbikes in an epic two-wheel weekend of racing, the task of riders and teams preparing for supercross sufficiently will potentially be more challenging than ever before. A short break, combined with the long haul into the Top End, will have all scrambling to prepare.

The plus is that the Northern Territory government is right behind the event and the exposure that the sport gets up there is second to none (speaking in experience from the Australian Superbike events up there). It’s become a favourite for the ASBK teams in recent years, however it’ll still be interesting to see how many handle to switch from outdoors to supercross. Here’s Makker…

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We’re starting to get a bit of an idea of where the pieces might fall into place in the MX1 class, thanks to the New Zealand motocross season getting under way.

With the KTM factory team riders Todd Waters and Kirk Gibbs, and new CDR Yamaha recruit Billy Mackenzie banging bars with Carlton Dry Honda’s Ben Townley and Motul Suzuki’s Cody Cooper, we can start seeing where the chips may potentially lie when the focus swings back here for the MX Nationals.

Granted, we’re only one round into their short season, but over the next few rounds I think we’ll see a fairly clear picture start to form.

Talking to Cody Cooper yesterday after his round one win, I was impressed with how upbeat and confident he sounded. Coop has always been a top 3-5 guy, but I think this year he might take more race wins than people expect. He’s training hard and if he can continue to improve his starts, you can expect him to fight for race wins.

On the other end of the scale, I did a great interview with Brenden Harrison yesterday for a feature that will be online tomorrow. Harry’s had probably the worst run of luck I’ve ever heard of and has spent the past three years basically sidelined with injury, followed by complications, more injuries, bad luck, more injuries and more complications.

Harrison had been training hard with the intention to return for the 2013 MX Nationals, but his femur hasn’t healed properly after he broke it (again) just before the Appin round of last year’s MX Nationals.

As a result he’s needed a bone graft from a third-party and is facing yet another five months of rehab and Call Of Duty bashing. I really hope this is the last of the bad luck for Harrison. He’s a damn good kid and deserves to be fighting for titles instead of his health.

That’s all from me this week. This time next week I’ll be in New Zealand helping put the finishing touches to the Farm Jam preparations. It’s shaping up to be an absolute ripper event and I’ll have all the inside gossip from it in next week’s MX Hub. Over to you, Spence!

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This week has been full of exciting revelations within our sport, with the official team announcement from Motorex KTM finally released and the Matt Moss/Motul Pirelli Suzuki back and forth finally coming to a close, just to name a few.

I recently spoke with Motorex KTM’s team manger Rob Twyerould, who was over in New Zealand preparing for round one of the motocross series. He gave some great insights into the structure and plans for the all-new factory KTM effort for 2013.

One main point that stood out during our conversation was the fact that KTM took the initiative to put all of their supported riders through a media training course – something that in this day and age is such an important part aspect to have covered.

Of course the usual presentation and speaking skills were addressed, but one key point Tywerould brought up was the social media portion. With social media having the strong influence it has today, this will greatly benefit the riders and team in the future.

Twyerould commented on the fact that they will be running a very refined program this year, and they have certainly taken the right steps to assure their riders are representing the brand and themselves in a positive light at all times. Expect a very impressive program from the KTM crew this year!

After images circulated social media hinting that Matt Moss and Motul Pirelli Suzuki had reunited, I gave Moss a quick call to see where he was at with the deal. The former Lites motocross and supercross champion confirmed that he had indeed locked in a deal with the team for 2013.

This was great news, not only for Moss himself, but for the sport domestically. A rider of his calibre will undoubtedly lift the level of competition and create even more intense racing throughout the series.

We all know Moss has the raw speed and intensity to win races and titles, but we are yet to see him put those skills to use in the premier class. Moss will, as always, be one to watch at round one, I can assure you he is ready to get out there and do battle for this 2013 MX1 title.

Another hungry rider in the MX1 class is Tye Simmonds, after joining the Berry Sweet/Lucas Oil/Yamaha team, the Bourke native relocated himself to Craig Anderson’s base in Newcastle to assure he is on the best program possible in preparation for the upcoming season.

I spoke with Anderson, Simmonds’ team manger and team owner, last week and he had only great things to say about the young rider’s preparations to date. He feels that Simmonds is on the right track and is gelling well with the Yamaha YZ450F.

The two have been training and testing, making gains in all areas at a constant rate. Anderson expects his rider to be battling for race wins and believes that if he carries on at this same rate, he will be doing just that.

With his all-new setup including the obvious move to Yamaha and his switch over to Thor gear and M2R helmets, Simmonds looks to be refreshed and ready to go – they say a change is as good as a holiday, right?

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