Kirk Gibbs will step up to MX1 with KTM alongside Todd Waters in 2013. Image: Greg Smith/iKapture.

KTM Australia has officially announced the Motorex KTM Racing Team of Todd Waters and Kirk Gibbs for the 2013 season.

The brand new in-house team replaces the outgoing JDR Motorsports operation, which fielded KTM’s factory program over the past three seasons.

The team will be under new but very familiar management, the pair guided by one of the most respected champion-builders in the business, long-time KTM stalwart Rob Twyerould, with the experienced hands of Danny Apro as crew chief.

“It’s a very exciting time for the Motorex KTM Racing Team,” said Twyerould. “We’ve got Todd, who is sure to be one of the major contenders this year coming back to KTM where he’s spent so many years, and Kirk making his first step up to MX1 which is very exciting for him and all of us.

“It should be a vintage year for Australian motocross in terms of the depth of talent with anywhere up to ten guys capable of pulling a race win.

“We’ve got a really good group of people involved this year and we’re definitely in with a shot – it could be a very good year.”

At just 22, Waters came agonizingly close to a first national championship win in MX1 last year when he powered to overall victory ahead of eventual winner Josh Coppins in the final round, but he’s a long way from satisfied.

“I want to be the best in the world and that starts with being the best in Australia,” said Waters. “Naturally everyone wants to win but for me the focus is on being consistently fast and eliminating the bad weekend.

“KTM was the dream team back in the Marmont days and Robbie T was the manager who was behind so many championships, but when I first came to KTM it was just as he left the race team job, so it’s been a dream of mine for so long to work with him. For myself, my trainer and my family to achieve this feels pretty cool.”

Teammate Gibbs, who finished fifth in last year’s MX2 standings, eagerly looks forward to joining his teammate in the premier class, and is excited by the challenge of a new bike, a new team and a new level of racing.

“I’ve wanted to get into MX1 for a few years – I’m a bit bigger and I’ve always had to eat less to be competitive on the Lites,” Gibbs said. “It feels great now I’ve got heaps of energy and I’m looking forward to this year.

“I want to run top-five everywhere I go and I’m in a great team on an unreal bike. I thought the KTM 450SX-F would take a long time get used to after all the years on Japanese bikes, but I feel at home, and like I can push 100 percent so I’m starting to do that.”

The team debuted at last weekend’s opening round of the New Zealand Motocross Championship, with Gibbs scoring third overall and Waters fifth despite an electrical problem in moto two.

The team’s next outing will be next weekend’s next round of the New Zealand outdoors at Patetonga.