Australian Motocross

• Back-to-back weekends of Australian motocross action continued to paint a clearer picture of what lies ahead in season 2011 and already we can see some top flight contenders emerging. CDR Rockstar Energy Yamaha’s Josh Coppins made it two in a row at Raymond Terrace to take over the title lead despite only finishing seventh at round one, while teammate Jay Marmont has made similar progress to rise six positions from ninth to third. Along with Monster Kawasaki’s Dean Ferris, these three have proven the class of the field in the dry this year to date.

• That leaves us to ponder what may have been for Ferris’ teammate Billy Mackenzie, the Scotsman taking a pair of eighths after winning round one in the mud at Broadford. There’s no doubt he’s fast, but he’s slipped back to sixth in the points race due to a painful rib injury that’s affected him the last two weekends in a row.

• Troy Carroll and his Monster Energy Kawasaki team will travel to California this week in a bid to carry out more development on its fleet of KX-Fs. The team will base itself at Pro Circuit, however we cannot confirm if Mackenzie, Ferris or American Phil Nicoletti will be joining them over there.

• Cody Cooper remains in Australia, staying at Ryan Marmont’s house, following the collapsed lung he suffered at Appin. Even though he wanted to and was willing to race at Raymond Terrace, it was deemed he’d be best off to sit out the weekend.

• Another top Aussie to head Stateside this week is Pro Lites leader Matt Moss, who has headed over with JDR Motorex KTM team owner Jay Rynenberg for a few weeks. Part of Moss is getting acclimatised for 2012 when he’s expected to head over fulltime, while he’s also making the most of the nicely prepared Southern California tracks.

• The most recent updates for the MX Nationals formats have seen positive results, with the feedback mostly being that the separated Pro Open motos are better than having all four back-to-back to cap off the day. One bonus is that the fans get to see the main men of the sport earlier on in the afternoon, plus the Pro Open riders get the advantage of riding the track earlier on in the day before it’s past its best conditions.

• Keep an eye out for highlights from the Raymond Terrace round to be aired on SPEED News Australia tonight from 7:00pm on SPEED. It’ll only be a quick recap, but mainstream media like that can only be good for the sport as the MX Nationals are featured on the half-hour program alongside the likes of F1, V8 Supercars, MotoGP and more.

• MotoOnline.com.au was lucky enough to head to Brisbane with the Serco Yoshimura Yamaha and GYTR Rockstar Yamaha teams today to test their factory-supported YZ250F race bikes. It’s not often media actually get to ride the bikes before the season wraps up, but we have managed it and will have the full reports flowing over the next couple of weeks. Plus, Out of Bounds Film Company’s Guy Streeter also made the trip north, enabling us to capture some cool footage from the test with the likes of Kirk Gibbs, Ford Dale and Luke Arbon.

• Australian motocross has been in mourning today following the sad passing of former racer, coach and contributing journalist Paul Broomfield in Sydney early this morning. His funeral details are in the news section, and we send our heartfelt best to his family and friends at this devastating time. Rest in peace, Broomy.

The AMA Supercross series has just three rounds remaining and Aussie Chad Reed is still right in contention.

American Supercross

• With three rounds to go in AMA Supercross, Aussie Chad Reed is eight points off the lead and has a big task ahead of him if he is to win title number thee – this one as a privateer of sorts for TwoTwo Motorsports. Reed has been chipping away all year long despite having some tough luck in recent weeks, and there’s no doubt Australia is right behind him in his quest for success. If you have Twitter, be sure to send him a shout out via @crtwotwo to spur him on!

• As much as the rivalry between Reed and James Stewart positions us against the talented American, seeing him win after an eight race winless streak was pretty cool. He’s been arrested, had various crashes and has copped heaps of criticism during the latter half of the season, so good on him for bouncing back and showing just how much it meant to him on the podium. He definitely isn’t out of this title chase just yet.

• Another rider who isn’t yet ruled out of this year’s title chase is Suzuki’s defending champion Ryan Dungey. Now just five points off title leader Ryan Villopoto, Dungey has been on the gas of late and he is flying in well below the radar. Make sure you keep an eye on him in these last few rounds.

• It looks as though South Australian Brett Metcalfe has decided to opt out of this year’s Supercross season in order to mount a solid attack on the outdoor nationals. As the current number two behind Suzuki teammate Dungey, Metcalfe has already said nothing will be good enough except for a win this year. If he’s already preparing over there in the U.S. while the others finish out Supercross, he could come out super strong at round one next month.

Australian Supercross

• Is the future of Australian Supercross in jeopardy? To be honest, I don’t think so. It’s been revealed that Super X Australasia Pty Ltd has gone into liquidation and owes a heap of money to various sources, however some are suggesting this is a transition in the ownership following the split between Global Action Sports and Chad Reed. We’re still working on a story and will report on the full details when we secure them, however early indications are that there is more to the story than currently been reported on the WWW. Interestingly, there is no reference to the Super X Australasia Pty Ltd company on the series’ official website at this point, just Global Action Sports Pty Ltd. To be honest I’m not sure if there ever was any reference to the Super X company, but fingers crossed the show will go on and Australia continues to feature as a prominent Supercross series recognised worldwide.

That’s all for this week, as always, thanks for stopping by!