Brenden Harrison will enter this year’s MX Nationals, Australian Motocross Championship, series as one of the title favourites in what will be his second full season as part of the powerhouse JDR Motorex KTM team.

MotoOnline.com.au called Harrison this afternoon to speak about those surgeries and to find out what his expectations are for the upcoming outdoor season.

Brenden Harrison will be a contender in 2012 despite some off-season surgeries.

First of all, fill us in on what you’ve been up to and the surgeries you’ve had recently?

I got my femur re-broken before Christmas and then went overseas for nearly four weeks with my girlfriend and her family. I just sort of chilled over there, watched Anaheim 1, pretty much had a holiday.

Then I got back and my hand had healed wrong, so it ended up having to be that I got my hand re-broken, straightened and plated. That was around two weeks ago, so yeah, on the road to recovery again I guess.

Considering those surgeries, will they put you back to 100 percent entering the season opener?

To be honest, I definitely don’t think I’ll be 100 percent for the first round, but I can only build from that. I don’t think my fitness will be a problem because I can still train and everything – I just won’t have as much bike time as everyone else in the pre-season.

I’m not too worried about it at all because it’s a long series and I can just keep chipping away at it every rounds.

This will be your second full season with JDR, so I guess the goal is to try and continue their momentum of winning championships?

Yeah, for sure. The team is amazing and it’s the team you want to be on if you want to win championships. I guess that’s everyone’s goal, so I’m in the right spot. My body will be pretty much 100 percent by the first round, so we’ll just stay positive and see how we end up.

You mentioned you’ve been in America this year and I saw you there last year as well, so does it add to your motivation seeing JDR with a team over there?

Yeah, the team in the U.S. is sick, so it’s great to see how big it is with the supercross and the caliber of riders there is. You can pretty well step straight into it if you play your cards right, so that’s definitely a big opportunity that we’ve got before – it’s awesome.

Harrison is back for his second full season with JDR Motorsports this year.

The Lites class here will be stacked with good guys in 2012, so what are your expectations as far as competition goes? Who will be your main rivals?

I honestly think that Kirk Gibbs will be strong. He’s been in the class for a while and you can never put it past him, but like you said, there are so many riders in it. But that’s the least of my worries, because I don’t really think about anyone else.

As long as I concentrate on myself, at the end of the series I want to be standing on the top step. I need to keep doing what I’m doing, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be right up there.

Just to wrap it up, the 450 class is an international field, so who do you rate for that title?

Yeah, I don’t want to play favourites or whatever, but I think that [Ben] Townley will kind of be the guy to beat because he’s been around and done everything.

I’ve never really seen much of Brad Anderson, but I hear that he’s really good, but I think there’s always going to be different winners. The guys from JDR will be strong as well.

It’s going to be awesome and there is so much depth in that class, so it will be sick to watch.