MotoOnline.com.au’s U.S. source checks in with an update on the Australian contingent for next year.

Things are getting a little silly over here in America in regards to who is riding where next year – hence why we call it the ‘silly season’.

Any fan that covers the sport with more than a passing interest knows that Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey is looking for a new multi-year, multi-million dollar deal. And most likely, he’s not getting it from his old team.

It seems that Dungey wants out from the only team he’s ever known and early favourites for Dungey’s services are the Red Bull KTM team. We’ll see what happens from here but once he signs with someone, the rest of the guys should fall into line.

I thought that a look at what the Aussie guys and teams had in store for next year would be appropriate this month.

Will Chad Reed be back with his own TwoTwo Motorsports team in 2012? Sources say yes. Image: Alex Gobert.

Chad Reed
Reedy’s a good bet to stay with Two-Two Motorsports because, well, he owns it! Seriously though Chad’s had a great year win or lose this outdoor season and he’ll continue on with his team to try and get some more funding.

One thing that isn’t clear is if he’ll be on a factory Honda next year or go back to his Pro Circuit machine he rode for most of the supercross season. There’s no denying that, despite Reed’s comments about his PC machine at the beginning of the year, his rides have gotten better since Honda lent out a full-factory Honda.

I imagine that Honda would keep on giving him a factory machine, but maybe they don’t have the budget to help Reed again. One of the reasons that they were able to do what they did was because of injuries to Josh Grant and Trey Canard.

The fact that Honda is not paying Reed factory bonuses for the outdoors indicates that although the big red machine is happy to have Reed and his wins, they are still a bit guarded about the whole deal.

If everyone is healthy going into 2012 supercross season, does Honda want to help Reed with a bike? As I said, I believe so, but that hasn’t stopped other manufactures from asking Reed what his plans were for next year. This situation bears watching.

As far as a teammate, Reed’s gone on the record as saying he would like to have one but again, it has to make financial sense for Chad. He’s publicly come out and criticised some riders for taking rides at dollar amounts that Chad feels are below market value and so the last thing he wants to do is turn around and hire someone for a second spot and not be able to pay them.

If he does have a teammate, Mike Alessi would be a good fit here. Or maybe even Kyle Regal. In my own opinion, I don’t think its likely Reed has a teammate unless he lands a big outside sponsor.

Michael Byrne
Byrner signed a two-year deal with the BTOSports.com/BBMX team and is currently in the first year of that deal. So he’ll be back next year, on a Suzuki, to try and improve his 2011 performance.

Brett Metcalfe
Just like Byrner, Metcalfe has a two-year deal with the factory Suzuki squad and he’s in his first year of that deal. Metty’s been pretty solid in the outdoors although he’s a bit off of the top three guys.

With his injury in supercross, Brett is looking for redemption next year indoors and this summer, he should keep on getting better to the point where I think him and Mike Alessi will be battling it out each week for that fourth spot.

If Dungey, as expected, leaves Suzuki, I can’t see the yellow team just going racing with Brett so I would think that he’ll have a new teammate next season there under the yellow tent.

Tye Simmonds could be looking for a new seat next season if JDR switches to a Lites only program. Image: Hoppenworld.com.

JDR Motorsports
The first year team has been solid this year although they have been snake-bit with injuries to their riders, Tye Simmonds and PJ Larsen, who are both finally back.

The results haven’t always been there but the team’s professional and team manager Nathan Ramsey will have everything running smoothly. From what I hear, the team is going to have three 250 riders next year which means that Simmonds is most likely out.

Tye’s just too big to ride one and although at times he’s ridden pretty good, he doesn’t fit the mold of a traditional Lites rider. Maybe Simmonds goes back and rides for JDR back in Aussie, I’m not sure. Maybe he can shop himself around a little bit to some American teams and perhaps he stays.

I have heard that down there former American Suzuki factory rider Matt Moss is winning the Lites class and has been told that if he clinches that title, he’ll be able to come back to the USA, ride for JDR and hopefully get some much better results than he had his first time around.

I also think that Larsen gets another shot, which means there is one, possibly two spots open to ride the pretty-fast KTM 250 SX-F. Ramsey and the boys will be flooded with resumes, no doubt about it.

As always, anything thing that’s written above can change at any time so don’t hold me to it!

Do you have an opinion to share on this story? Be sure to sign up to MotoOnline.com.au’s iMoto Community and have your say below today!