Hello and welcome to what is the final MotoInsider column of the season, presented by our good friends at Oakley Australia, as we enter the festive season before the new year period. They say time flies when you’re having fun, but this year has to be the quickest in memory.

While Australia still has near four months before the MX Nationals commence in April, New Zealand is preparing for what may just be their most competitive season of racing yet. The four-round season will kick off in February before finishing at the end of March, just two weeks before the Aussie season commences.

What that means is that many of the top Australian motocross contenders will be using the NZ nationals to prepare. Of course, Ben Townley will be there defending his title, and we’ll also see his fellow Kiwis such as Cody Cooper out in force.

This year though, the importance of Australian riders racing across the ditch seems to be magnified somewhat after seeing just how strong Townley, Coppins and Todd Waters started the season in 2012 at Conondale – all fresh from racing in NZ.

KTM will have both Waters and new teammate Kirk Gibbs on track in New Zealand, which will be the first time we officially see them on their 450 SX-F race bikes during a national level race. Coppins confirmed today that his new JCR Yamaha team will field at least one CDR Yamaha rider in NZ, with all speculation leading to Mackenzie.

After a injury-ruled 2012 season, will we see Billy Mackenzie work his way back to the top via NZ with JCR Yamaha? Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

While he’s not yet officially announced to be joining CDR, Mackenzie has posted a picture of his YZ450F via social networking and is said to be on an outdoor-only deal with the team. So, considering he’s not doing supercross here (CDR will likely get Dan McCoy back for that), it’s a logical step for BillyMac to race for Coppins in NZ as a warm up. Man, what a combo that will be of former GP winners!

I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more Aussie-based riders entering the series in the new year, because really there’s no better way to prepare. The tracks are exceptional, it’s close to Australia and the series is gaining momentum each year.

Speaking of Townley, he was in Australia late last week testing in Victoria for Carlton Dry Honda Thor Racing and already says he feels super comfortable on the bike. Townley’s test schedule included time at Broadford, as he also was doing testing for Pirelli.

What else Townley has mentioned on Twitter this week is that he’s keen on doing next year’s Hattah Desert Race. It’s a massive event, one that he’d of course do awesome at, and how good would it be to see BT and Toby Price go head-to-head in the desert? We’ll definitely keep an eye on that one in the new year.

Australian Supercross number two Dan McCoy this week sent us a few updates on his early progress testing in the US, where he’s riding a stock YZ450F equipped with a number of CDR parts including suspension and other various components.

McCoy rode with Trey Canard and Zach Osborne earlier this week and was able to gauge his speed against some of the top guys for the first time at the Castillo Ranch, which he said was promising at the moment. He’ll be absolutely loving it in the lead-up to A1.

Jay Marmont could also be headed overseas for some supercross in the new year, scheduled to ride in Germany if the plan comes together. The current Australian champion has raced there before and said it’s a tough series to race, but it’s very lucrative for visiting riders.

Expect to see Luke Clout up front in the MX2 class of the outdoors in 2013. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

We were testing the 2013 Kawasaki KX250F out at Appin yesterday and Marmont was there also, beginning initial development with the new PSF fork from Kayaba. It will be interesting to watch as teams get a handle on these forks in the new year.

Another notable rider out at Appin yesterday was Serco Yamaha Metal Mulisha Racing’s new signing Luke Clout, and he was charging hard aboard the YZ250F that he’ll race in the MX2 class next year. Clout is a real interesting rider in the sport right now, feature an aggressive US-type style and already a number of people are tipping him as a potential title threat as a rookie.

If you read yesterday’s Off-Road Observer you would have seen I mentioned the Troy Bayliss Classic dirt track event that’s taking place in Taree on 19 January. It’s going to be a who’s who of racing, both young and old on the oil-slicked circuit of Old Bar.

A number of familiar motocross names will go head-to-head with some of the world’s top two-wheel stars. Those with MX backgrounds include Dan Reardon, Stephen Gall, Anthony Gunter and Vaughan Style. Bayliss himself will be racing, plus Toby Price, Chris Hollis, Chris Vermeulen, Troy Herfoss, Jamie Stauffer, Josh Hook, Damian Cudlin, Garry McCoy, Broc Parkes, Josh Waters, Wayne Maxwell, Paul Caslick and more. It’s a must see, unique event.

That’s all we have for this week, thank you for reading and we’re pleased to announce for next year we’ll introduce a slightly different mid-week Wednesday feature called the MX Hub. More on that later, but for now, Merry Christmas and happy riding throughout the holiday period!