Australian Riley Graham will contest the race of his life this weekend during the first round of the 2013 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship at Hangtown in California.

Graham, 23, will ride a Race SoCal Honda CRF450R with the support of Rocket Exhausts, enjoying his time in the US to date.

“The support I have had since coming over to race here is awesome,” Graham told MotoOnline. “The Race SoCal boys running the tours day to day have been great, Don Lieb from Rocket Exhaust has been really helpful.

“The bike I’m riding is by far fastest bike I have ridden power-wise, just getting use to it was the thing as I have ridden Kawis the last four years.”

It’s been a unique experience for Graham, sharing the tracks of Southern California with the sport’s elite riders in preparation for his AMA debut.

“It has been crazy really, the tracks are all so fast compared to Australia which I like,” he added. “To have guys like [Ken] Roczen, [Ryan] Dungey, [Ryan] Villopoto, [Broc] Tickle and a lot more going past you feels strange after watching them all on TV for so many years.”

Graham has set some straightforward goals for the weekend and hopes to qualify for Saturday’s 450 Class motos, but isn’t carrying too many expectations into the event.

“The goal for me is to try my best to just qualify, which is the main thing to get in the main races,” he outlined. “As far as expectations go, I haven’t really got any.

“I had a year off pretty much with a dislocated wrist which was a bad injury, so I just want to get in the main races and race two full motos. We’ll see how I come out of it at the end – it’s all just a big experience for me.”

Graham has a lot of people to thank for helping in making his dream come true, competing at the top level of the sport in the US.

“I really would like to thank Outlaw Coatings & Conveyers, Chris Evans, Stephen Heighton, Don Lieb, Rocket Exhausts, Split Designs, my brother Alan for coming over to help, Bill Edwards for all his help since 2004, Ram Racing Trailers, Flinders Motorcycles and all the guys at Race Socal, plus everybody at home in AUS that I know will be cheering me on, thanks.”

Race SoCal owner Stephen Heighton said Graham’s race entry is part of a current expansion plan taking place within the popular Southern California-based motocross holiday company.

“Basically we are expanding business in partnership with Rocket Exhaust, to give expert grade riders the opportunity to race an AMA national or the whole season as part of a full service race team and Riley is our trial run,” Heighton explained.

“Depending on the budget of the rider we can provide them with a stock 450 to race and they bring their own suspension, or we can build a stage one or a stage two race bike for them to use.

“If they have a good budget and want something competitive with the best bikes on the track we can build a program around them having the same equipment as Michael Leib and PJ Larsen used in Supercross. The bike Riley is riding is basically PJ Larsen’s race bike from Supercross, just without the titanium kit.”

For further information on Race SoCal, visit their website by clicking here.