True to form, Marmont fought until the final moto with his number one plate. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jay Marmont insists that he’s in a confident mood for the upcoming Australian Supercross Championship following a disastrous first MX Nationals campaign aboard the KX450F.

After winning four-straight championships with CDR Yamaha in an unbeaten run since 2008, Marmont failed to reach the podium at all in 2012, with a lone moto win in WA coming as the season highlight for the 29-year-old.

Yesterday’s MX Nationals season finale at Coolum saw Marmont hand over his number one plate to former teammate Josh Coppins, with the former champion forced to settle for sixth in this year’s title chase after an injury-plagued year.

In a series that has dealt Marmont many blows, the bad luck continued for him at Coolum with a big first turn crash in the opening moto, leaving both himself and his KX450F bruised and battered.

He fought back to 12th before lining up immediately for the second back-to-back moto, where he pushed hard for sixth place. Fourth in the final moto handed him sixth overall for the weekend.

“I could have done without the crash in the first race,” he reflected. “It caps off an unlucky series. This series obviously didn’t go to plan for me. I had an injury that forced me to miss a whole round which is unheard of for me.

“But on the plus side, I’m fit and healthy now, and getting faster and faster on the Kawasaki and I’m heading into the upcoming supercross series very confident and ready to defend my number plate.”

Despite his troublesome outdoor campaign, Marmont will enter the supercross series opener at Dubbo in October at the pre-season title favourite.