With the 2012 Australian Supercross Championships season opener closing in, Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jay Marmont is currently preparing to defend his 2011 title.

The all-new series with fresh locations and traditional formats is sure to light the fire amongst a talent filled line-up of riders contesting the series.

MotoOnline.com.au caught up with Marmont today to talk to him about the upcoming series, his competition, championship defence and more.

Jay Marmont will head into the Australian Supercross Championships as the reigning champion. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

Heading into the all-new Australian Supercross Championships, do you expect the new locations and schedule to work well?

I think the new supercross series is going to be great. I think Yarrive [Konksy] has been there and done it before, and the idea of getting back to the grass roots in definitely going to help in bringing ticket sales down.

With venues like Phillip Island, even Dubbo, Toowoomba and then Newcastle., those venues seem to be venues that are going to work. So I think it’s going to be a good series and I’m looking forward to getting underway.

How has your supercross preparation been going so far?

I feel awesome at the moment. As everyone knows and I’ve spoken about before, I went to the effort of building my track a little earlier this year so I didn’t get stuck with my preparations.

My team made the way down to test just with me, by myself, we spent a bit of time tuning the bike and doing a few things to get it right. They were here for about three days and have basically just left me to myself, to do the riding.

My track is a pretty decent track and I’ve been pumping out motos all the time. I’m feeling good on the bike and I’m looking forward to putting it to practice in a race.

Who do you think will be your main competitors in the ASX Pro Open class for 2012?

It’s going to be interesting. Just because of his results last year, I think it’s hard to go past Tye Simmonds, he went really good last year. Also Daniel McCoy finished on the podium. So obviously those guys are going to be strong.

Guys like Ben Townley, he’s got a lot to prove, he missed the whole series this year, he’s going to be strong. The Moss brothers, Matt won the Lites championship and he definitely doesn’t like to be outdone by his brother.

So they’re going to be strong and then you have [Lawson] Bopping, [Todd] Waters and all those guys. So at the end of the day, I think Todd has shown this year that he has risen to the plate more and more. He seems to be stepping up his riding each time he goes out there.

I think it’s going to be a very open series and it will be up to anyone to go out there and do well in the first few races, it’s a short series so you’re going to have to do what you can straight away.

Marmont hopes to re-sign with Monster Energy Kawasaki for the 2013 season. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

Do you feel that you are entering the series with more pressure being the defending series champion?

For sure I want to earn one number one plate this year, I lost motocross and missed races. But right now heading into supercross I’m 100 percent healthy and for sure there is always pressure, no matter if you’re winning or back in 10th position.

So I just want to go out there and ride to my potential, and I know that can be good enough to win on the night. So if I can go out there and be strong, being 20 laps you can’t go out there and rush.

There is a lot to play in your favour and I know I can go out there and win, so I just have to try and make it happen.

Finally, looking beyond supercross, can you speak about your plans for 2013. Do you have a deal locked up for the new year at this point?

I’ve got nothing locked up as of yet, I’ll be 100 percent honest with you. Kawasaki are interested and we are in talks, but nothing is certain at this point. That’s pretty much the only thing on the table right now.

Hopefully I can go out there and do the job they signed me on for this year, which is to go out there and win races and championships for Monster Energy Kawasaki.