Features 5 Mar 2016

Moto 360

An all-access Australian view of dirt bikes, presented by Alpinestars.

We’re within a month of the opening round of the 2016 MX Nationals, which will mark Williams Event Management’s 20th year at the helm of the Australian Motocross Championship. It’s a huge one for Kevin, Christine Williams and the team, which bodes well for a big year ahead.

Over the past year or two WEM has expanded upon its endevours from race promoter into the media, producing the NRGTV livestreaming network and also the Inside Dirt digital magazine, which doubles as an official event program per round.

While some media outlets are somewhat ‘threatened’ by those developments, we at MotoOnline.com.au embrace it and welcome it. The more attention drawn to dirt bike competition in this country, the better off we’ll all be because of it. Whether it’s us or otherwise, these racers, teams and sponsors deserve all the exposure they can get.

We’re honoured to be continuing as digital media partner of the MX Nationals once again and are committed to creating quality content that compliments eachother along the way. That will see use work closely with WEM between and at events, as well as contributing to Inside Dirt as part of the ongoing process.

Image: Jeff Crow.

Image: Jeff Crow.

In 2016 we’ll also be teaming up with the NRGTV crew to publish Highlights at each and every round of the season. Between that, the ever-improving Livestream and additional coverage, here’s hoping you won’t need to look far at all for the best online information available.

It’s actually been a heck of a fortnight with Adam Spence out of the office filming and also editing those films in between regular website work, alongside our commitments with CycleOnline.com.au at the Australian/World Superbike opening rounds. On that note, I’ll send it over to Spence for his take on the week…

Following last week’s adventure to the 2016 Husqvarna Enduro Racing Team photoshoot where I shot the official launch film with Foremost Media (stay tuned for the release of that over the coming days) it wasn’t long before I was back into it heading off to yet another team unveiling. This time it was the NPE Monster Energy Kawasaki team breaking out their 2016 livery for the media, and they even went a step further hosting the event at the Navy Headquarters South Queensland, a truly unique location.

You may ask, a motocross team launch at a Navy base? For 2016 team manager Troy Carroll has joined forces with Team Navy, so it seemed fitting to match the unique sponsorship deal with a unique launch location! It definitely was a new experience showing up to a team launch uniformed security at the gate requiring photo identification before allowing you inside, but once within the gates it was quite a laid back and enjoyable day. Rain did threaten to derail the plans for the launch, but following a slight delay, the day went on without a hitch.

Image: Adam Spence.

Image: Adam Spence.

For an idea of how the day went, you can click here to view our Overview film from the event we posted, and we can guarantee you will love the look of those 2016 Kawasakis, as Carroll and the whole team have really outdone themselves this year, the bikes look amazing. Not only do the bikes look awesome, but our friends over at Alpinestars really put together a great gear package for the launch with a custom colour way to suit the team’s overall look perfectly. Combined with the Bell Moto-9 Flex helmets featuring Monster Energy graphics, these guys look the goods heading into round one.

We spoke with team rider Jake Moss during the launch (click here to view our First Person interview with him) and he seems very happy and excited about his decision to return to the MX2 class in 2016. Moss suffered a string of injuries in 2015, forcing him to sit on the sidelines for the full season both outdoors and in. The decision was made to step back, regroup and build himself back up in 2016 with the goal set to return to the premier MX1 class in the near future. Moss isn’t taking the MX2 class lightly either, he knows these kids are fast and he’s serious about his racing this year.

The Queensland-based rider has been in the gym training hard and has lost a considerable amount of weight to allow the smaller bike to pull him around the track and get him out of the gate fast. He also admits that in the past it has been hard for him to race his twin brother Matt, so for 2016 with each of them being in separate classes they should be able to really help one another out without any on-track worries getting in the way. Moss is a talented rider, he’s proven that with a seriously impressive list of results both domestically and internationally, can he return to MX2 and land on top? We’ll soon find out!

Make sure you check out all of MotoOnline.com.au’s social networking channels and be sure to Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Instagram and Twitter for even more behind the scenes insights. Just search MotoOnline.

Recent