Labelled by many as the favourite for this weekend’s Penrite ProMX season-opener at Wonthaggi, graduating MX2 champion Kyle Webster isn’t fazed by that added pressure ahead of his MX1 debut.

Webster steps up to the 450 class with Honda Racing after a dominant 2021 which saw him win five of the six MX2 races on-route to taking the title.

The 25-year-old is known for his speed on soft terrain and is notoriously fast around home track Wonthaggi, which should see him start the championship strongly at on Sunday.

“Not really… we all train hard and work to win races,” he told MotoOnline when questioned regarding the pressures of any mounting expectations. “That’s something I learned last year and learned how to do…

“It’s really handy for me, being right near my house for the first round, and to kick things off in what would feel like an everyday situation for me.

“Not that we even ride Wonthaggi more than anyone else rides their other tracks, but yeah, it just seems to be labelled where we ride a lot. I’m really looking forward to it and keen to get things started.”

The number 96 approaches the ProMX opener with promising pre-season form, notably winning the AMX MX Open at Wonthaggi late last year on his CRF 450R competitive debut.

“It’s been really good so far and its been quite a long one from when we ended up racing last year,” he added. “Everything has been going really good and its been a nice build from January up to this point. I’m really looking forward to seeing where we are at this weekend and see what everybody else put in over the pre-season.”