Just over three days remain until the Monster Energy MX Nationals commence this weekend at MX Central in Raymond Terrace, NSW, the first of 10 rounds scheduled for 2013. As usual, the wait for the season feels drawn out until the final weeks, when the accelerated rush always takes place.

While we’ve done a heap of crystal-balling over the past few months, I’m choosing this week to simply wait for the weekend and enjoy whatever takes place. It’s been a busy few months regardless of not actually having any domestic racing taking place on a national level, so in part we’re relieved to get things underway.

This week a lot of the content on the site has been directed around the MX Nationals opener, mostly in a bid to give fans further insight into the series before the gates drop. It’s at this point in the year that teams really start to churn out press releases, previewing the events and then obviously reporting on them afterwards. It’s setting us up for a huge year ahead here at MotoOnline.

What did come as a slight surprise this week was Carlton Dry Honda’s signing of Daniel McCoy. I was privileged to this information over the weekend and then posted the news earlier this week that he was testing, but so far, so good for McCoy since that test that sealed him the seat. It’s a risk for the team and a risk for McCoy, however I’m glad we’ll see two factory CRF450Rs on the grid.

It wasn’t an easy decision for McCoy to make, because in going to Honda, he essentially left behind a full-spec CDR Yamaha to ride outdoors, as a privateer nonetheless. That would have likely led to his re-signing for Supercross, but then again he personally had concerns whether he’d even be able to afford to make it through the outdoors as a full privateer – CDR bike or not.

While the move won’t directly affect Craig Dack’s team in the outdoors as they have Lawson Bopping and Billy Mackenzie, it will mean Dack has to find a new rider for Supercross later in the year since BillyMac is on an outdoor-only deal. Who knows, maybe they’ll keep him on? As for Honda, they just landed themselves a Supercross title contender in McCoy, even if he hasn’t had the greatest of results outdoors in recent seasons.

The Zero Seven Motorsports team continues to evolve in its second season as a revamped operation, this week announcing a number of commercial agreements and also a reality web-based film series. While still a privateer outfit, it’s important to keep an eye on the team as AME Management is involved in V8 Supercars and is beginning to bring the commercial approach to motocross with early success.

With Carlton Dry Honda Racing also very proactive in its sponsorship process, it’s becoming increasingly important that teams adopt these strategies to relieve the industry of the constant financial pressure. If Zero Seven can break some new boundaries in attracting deals as a privateer team, it’ll set a new benchmark for other private teams to strive for.

It’s not a straightforward process by any means, but it’s something the V8 teams are very successful with and Motocross teams could be as well. By leveraging from social networking and online opportunities, sponsors are getting a greater return than ever before, even without television exposure in the MXN series at least.

Saturday will see the new Motorex KTM team unveiled on a national level as they set up for Sunday’s race action, which will be interesting to see in itself. The heavily KTM-branded team will have an all-new infrastructure as it competes with Todd Waters and Kirk Gibbs, but for the most part the faces behind the scenes are all very familiar from either the JDR team or the previous factory KTM team.

Speaking of Waters, he and Jay Marmont were spotted out at Appin yesterday and both are right on pace entering this weekend’s first round. What we’ll see a lot of this weekend (and we have already during pre-season races) is that riders will closely gauge each other during the practices the best they can and lap times will be monitored more so than at any other time during the season. Put simply, with so many changes during the off-season, nobody’s certain who will stand where.

I’m excited for the changes implemented by Williams Event Management, the Superpole will steal some headlines and the two-moto format will bring back a traditional feel for the events. Plus, the live streaming of the pre-show, practice and qualifying will be instrumental in enabling you guys to witness all the action from home if you can’t make it to the circuit. Plus, as always, we’ll have live updates streaming across our social networks (more on that later).

If you do want to see more exciting aspects ahead of the weekend, check out the Top 10 feature we compiled yesterday, previewing the things we’re tipping you should watch for this weekend (click here to view). For now though, here’s Makker.

Finally! Man it seems like we’ve been waiting years for this series to start, but here we are, three days out and after Sunday a whole swag of questions will be answered.

I’ve spent the past couple of days interviewing a tonne of riders, mechanics, team owners and industry players and picking their brains of who they think is going to win. And I can tell you there are no clear standout winners in either class.

It seems everyone has differing opinions as to who they think will hold the championship trophy above their heads after the final round at Coolum in four months’ time. We’ll have the story online in the next couple of days, so make sure you stay tuned for it.

That’s all from me this week. I’m fidgeting like a lizard on a skillet waiting for the gates to drop at Raymond Terrace on Sunday and for everyone to put their money where their mouths are.

For now, here’s Spence.

MotoOnline’s final 2013 pre-season MX Hub is finally upon us, and I am sure that I’m not the only one who’s just slightly excited about that thought. It’s almost time for the gates to drop, the bench racing to stop and the cream to rise to the top!

At this point in the pre-season, just days away from the season opener, each and every rider will be hoping that they have put together the best off-season possible and are 100 percent prepared for the 10-round series. But with such a variation of pre-season preparation choices, nobody will truly know until the riders hit the track.

Some riders like to train alone and keep to themselves, others like to get out there with their competitors and gauge themselves against them throughout the months in lead up. But if you’re a rider such as Ford Dale or Lawson Bopping, you might like to take a trip overseas for a fresh training ground and a chance to work with experienced personnel.

Speaking with Dale and Bopping today, both MX1 contenders have returned from recent overseas adventures and both seem to be feeling bouncy and ready to get this season started. Dale obviously took the opportunity to head to Ben Townley’s compound in New Zealand where he receives one-on-one training from the experienced former world champion.

Bopping on the other hand, he chose to make his way to the freshly prepared tracks of Southern California – the Motocross mecca of the world. Bopping used the selection of perfectly-groomed tracks, filled with the world’s best riders on a daily basis, to refine his program.

As we saw in 2012, Dale clinched his first-ever MX2 title with Townley in his corner. And we definitely noticed an improvement in Bopping’s riding after his return from a mid-season US trip, taking home the Hervey Bay overall win – his first premier class round win of his career.

But as we all know, these techniques won’t work for everyone. Many riders such as Serco Yamaha’s Luke Styke and Luke Clout, for example, have remained in Australia taking on as many local and state races possible, and that seems to be working very well also.

It’s something I find very interesting in our sport, the preparation choices are endless, but once the gate drops it’s all back to even playing fields. Each and every competitor deals with the same track, and in the end the way your prepared doesn’t matter – all that matters is if you’re on the top of the box at the end of the day.

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