Troy Lee Designs – Maxima Zero Seven Motorsports Kawasaki’s Cody Mackie re-entered the Australian Motocross scene in 2013 after a brief hiatus from sport.

Mackie spent time racing in the US before picking up a filming gig in Africa for the newest Mad Max movie. But this didn’t mean he wasn’t training or keeping a watchful eye over the happenings during that time.

In preparation for the 2012 Monster Energy MX Nationals series the MX1 contender suffered a knee injury which kicked off a spiral of unfortunate events for the New South Wales native.

MotoOnline.com.au caught up with Mackie today to talk about his season to date, find out the extent of his injuries and see how he plans to turn his season around.

Taking a look back to the pre-season, heading into the championship what were you expecting from yourself spending time away from the racing scene?

My expectations were to be consistently within the top 10 for sure at every round, and it’s been far from that. I sustained an injury two weeks out from the first round, it was my Medial ligament on my right knee, so from there it just snowballed.

I was kind of nursing that so it put a dampener on the whole mindset I had coming in. I had really good preparation and I believe it was probably the best I’ve had for a couple of years. I did have really good expectations coming in, I never really told anyone where I wanted to get.

But I got the injury and kind of lost the confidence in my riding for sure. Then obviously at round three I went to hospital and then it just seemed to get worse from there again. I couldn’t ride until Broadford and then that track at Broadford was just, well I don’t know what they were thinking with that track [laughs].

Then five at Conondale I was probably riding the best I have all year during the first moto, then I had a gnarly crash again. I jumped off the track, hit a wall and had nowhere to go – it was a really weird crash. I ruptured my quadricep on top of my left knee.

So it was back to the drawing board and I saw my physio then didn’t the second moto doing kind of what I could. I really couldn’t wait for the six-week break, it couldn’t come soon enough for me really.

Putting your string of injuries aside, what do you feel has been the biggest change in the premier class since you last competed in it?

It’s been a good couple of years since I rode the open class, and the last time I rode it I had a really good finishes. I had a good off-season then in 2009 and I came out and got fourth at the first round and with all due respect I was kind of the fourth-best guy that year at every round.

I guess that’s confidence too, I knew where I could be and top fives were always on the cards. But the depth this year is definitely by far the gnarliest it has been. I think as far as the tracks, I think we’ve been a little bit unlucky with weather and also track preparation at times. It definitely could be a lot better.

I guess if I was winning I probably wouldn’t point the finger at the tracks so much, it’s a bit of everything. You lose confidence and then you start wondering why you’re going shit on the weekends, I think you start blaming a little bit of everything.

Injury-wise, what do you feel has set you back the most during the season?

I think my knee two weeks from the first round set me back more than my injury at Wonthaggi and from the knee it just snowballed on from there like I said. I couldn’t really get on a roll, it just never felt like I could get the ball rolling. So this six-week break has been good, riding has been good, so we’ll try and change it around.

How are you feeling currently with your health, are you back to 100 percent or will you be racing the remainder of the season hurt?

Well the knee is good, my medial is good. But with the left knee I hurt at Conondale, I got some ultrasounds and they want to operate, but at the same time it’s not affecting me. I’ve got a 3.7 centimeter tear in it out of 5 centimeters, so it’s not affecting me but at the same time I’ve just got to do a lot of cycling and things like that to make sure it doesn’t rupture all the way though.

You mentioned riding had been going well during the mid-season break, have you been sticking to your usual routine throughout the time off?

I haven’t done anything out of the ordinary. Just being healthy means I can ride more during the week and ride a bit quicker, so it’s been a little bit more motivating.

Finally, Appin is the next round on the calendar and has been a tricky circuit in the past years. How do you feel about that track and what are you expecting heading in?

I’m just hoping for some good weather and I’d actually rather see some dust instead of mud if anything. To expect anything I just want to have two good fun motos.

I haven’t had much fun it the motos because as I said it just snowballed – you could pretty much write this whole interview in one sentence. It snowballed two weeks out and has just gotten worse, so hopfully this six-week break has changed it.

I think it’s like anything, if you can come out and do really well in the last five rounds they’re not going to remember how bad I went in the first five.