MotoOnline.com.au talks Monster Energy Supercross with Australian rookie Kade Mosig.
After finishing last year’s Australian Supercross Lites Championships in third, Kade Mosig headed to the United States as part of the brand new Australian-owned ADR Motorsports Kawasaki team for the opening six rounds of the Monster Energy West Coast 250SX series.
Five rounds in and the Victorian is really beginning to find his feet at the pinnacle of the sport, qualifying for both the Oakland and Anaheim 3 rounds following a steady start to the season. MotoOnline.com.au caught up with Mosig following A3 to get this update on his progress to date.
Five rounds into your American supercross experience in 2013, looks like you’re gaining momentum. How’s it been?
Yeah, we’re five rounds in and I’ve learnt a lot. I got over here and started riding, felt good after four rounds back home, but the more riding that I did around the faster guys I started picking up the pace a little bit and it threw my set-up out a bit. I’ve been trying to improve my bike to have it comfortable as I pick up my pace.
I’ve had an awesome time so far, sometimes it’s pretty hard because I’ve been over here on my own and that’s definitely not easy, but overall I’ve enjoyed it and am learning a bunch.
It’s good to work with a different team, the ADR Motorsports team and they are new as well, so they are learning and we’re all progressing together. It’s been a good experience so far and I’m looking forward to finishing off on a good note at San Diego.
The ADR Motorsports team, you’re still on a Kawasaki, similar to what you raced back home. Has it made the transition easier being part of what is an Australian-owned team?
It has. I brought over my suspension from back home so that was easy, as far as the bike goes, and the team is really committed to making progress. They’re pushing me to improve and are 100 percent behind me. I’ve been going to Pro Circuit and that’s cost me a little bit of money to do that with the suspension, but I feel that they know the suspension that I’m running probably the best.
But it is hard to get stuff done, a little bit longer process compared to working from a factory race shop. The ADR team is based out of a smaller shop and although they work really hard, there’s a lot of work between the practice and race bikes, switching suspension and stuff all the time. When those guys work hard and are committed like they are, it definitely makes my job easier.
You’ve obviously been riding supercross for the past few months, but do you feel this experience will benefit you come the MX Nationals even though it’s outdoors? Your intensity and stuff must be pretty good right now…
I think it’s a great thing and out of all my years of racing I haven’t felt this prepared. I don’t think you can get better practice than on a race track, not just any race track, but over here I’m racing against the fastest guys in the world in the 250 class.
It’s been making me push that little bit harder, I feel like it’s helped me find a bit extra in my riding and it’s given me a lot of motivation to go home and work even harder.
It’s definitely been good for me and that’s the main reason why I came over here, to better myself and my riding. I’m really excited to get back home to work with the Zero Seven Motorsports team, get the ball rolling into motocross. I think this is the best pre-season lead-up I could possibly have.
Just before we wrap this up, you mentioned the Zero Seven team that you’ll ride for back home. You’ve worked with Steven Powell before and you again have support from Kawasaki on the KX250F. That combination should be pretty good for you, with the new team, but on the same equipment.
Yeah, it’s a great thing for me to have Kawasaki support me and I’m very grateful for that. This will be the first year for me that I’ll ride the same machine from the year before, pretty much. I’ll carry my set-up on and I think all the testing I had to do is around 50 percent out of the way. We’ll just try find some more speed, make some minor adjustments and have it the best we can come round one.
Well thanks a lot for that mate, best of luck this weekend in San Diego – it should be a great finish for you. We look forward to it.
Thank you very much for having me and I just wanted to say thanks to all the Aussie fans supporting me back home, getting behind me and following me along the way. Thank you, I really appreciate it.