With plenty of sponsorship announcements the flavour of the month in motocross and off-road, it dawned upon me once again this week just how much Yamaha supports Australian motorcycle racing.

Of course, Yamaha Motor Australia has long been a significant backer of the sport domestically, but the brand’s clearly not resting on its laurels.

Just this week it was confirmed that Yamaha would be naming-rights of both the junior categories at the MX Nationals – the Rising Star Rookies and 85cc Cup – as well as continuing as a major series partner overall.

A couple of days prior Motorcycling Australia announced Yamaha as the returning title sponsor of the Australian Off-Road Championship, not to mention the countless teams and riders it supports nationally (in addition to its finance/insurance support).

As a sport we’re reliant on national distributors, be it motorcycle brands or aftermarket companies, supporting all that we do, so it’s essential we all stand up and show them value for money and a return on investment.

And Yamaha’s just an example, because at all sorts of events around the country the likes of KTM, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Honda (plus the majority of the other companies) support competition and events. As do importers such as Monza, GAS, etc.

As funny as it sounds, we’re fortunate for that backing and it’s a major part of what’s driving the sport forward year on year. Let’s keep the ball rolling!

That’s it from me for today, this edition coming from the media centre at Phillip Island, where we’re at for this weekend’s opening round of the World and Australian Superbikes to cover on CycleOnline.com.au. Here’s Adam Spence…

Exciting times here at MotoOnline.com.au with the 2016 MXGP World Championship kicking off this weekend in Qatar, along with the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship heading to the east coast, round two of the New Zealand Motocross Championship going down in Manawatu and the FIM SuperEnduro World Championship taking place in Brazil.

We love having plenty of events to list in our This Weekend feature it means we’re going to have a range of quality racing to cover in the coming week for our viewers. It’s also an exciting time for us as fans of the sport, we’re just as pumped to see some good racing as you are!

The most exciting part of the weekend for me personally is Ben Townley’s return to the MXGP circuit, I mean, the guy is truly amazing on a motorcycle and I really hope he can put it together and do well. He’s up against some stiff, experienced and youthful competition, but Townley has been there and done that, so let’s hope he can find his way to the pointy end of the field in Qatar.

Lawson Bopping returned to Australia recently following his impressive stint in the Monster Energy AMA Supercross 450SX class. The New South Wales native touched down, spent a few days at home before heading right into his pre-season program with the DPH Motorsport team. You may ask, could his supercross pre-season hinder him outdoors? Well he feels it’ll be quite the opposite.

“The trip will only help me in my racing over here,” Bopping told MotoOnline.com.au. “I wasn’t really ready to sit at home for three months or so and lose the intensity and things like that. I’ve already done six rounds with three race starts at least at all of those rounds, so I’m feeling good going into the motocross season.”

You can click here to view the complete news story we put together following a brief chat with Bopping. Although he’s definitely pushed for time before the 3 April season opening MX Nationals round, in speaking with him he seems quite relaxed and confident. He’s arguably riding the best he ever has and filled with confidence; this guy could be very dangerous in 2016.

Early next week I’ll also be making my way to Queensland for the official launch of the NPE Monster Energy Kawasaki team. I’ve had the chance to speak with both Matt Moss and Kade Mosig, the team’s MX1 contenders, and they’re both feeling great at this point in the pre-season. Moss is healthy, training harder than ever and looking super comfortable on his Kawasaki KX450F. Click here to view our On Track film we shot with him recently if you’d like visual proof of that.

These two will be riders to keep an eye on in 2016, it’s a great combination of determined, disciplined and talented riders to feed off one another during the season. But as always, we’ll have to wait until round one to see how everything will pan out and I can’t wait – not long now everyone, sit tight.

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