Supercross didn’t finish off exactly to plan, but it wasn’t too bad. It was certainly a short series and I ended up fifth, I was close to third, but I ended up fifth. I was definitely a bit bummed out after the race – the last round didn’t go really well because I went down.

I got a new motocross bike at the last round of the supercross and I kept riding a little bit, just for a couple weeks after the series, and then I had a decent break. I had a couple of weeks off, but I still kept cycling a little bit, just chilled out and got away from bikes for a while.

That was relaxing over Christmas, but I’m back into it now. I got back into riding now and I recently did an AIS camp in Canberra a couple of weeks ago. That was a really good way to kick-off the year, it’s a 10-day camp, really full on and you learn a lot from it.

So that was cool, there were guys like Cody Mackie, Luke Styke, Toby Price, a lot of off-road guys were there and some good younger guys coming through. That was a good way to get things started and it definitely whips you into shape fairly quickly.

Lawson Bopping will be joined by Billy Mackenzie on the CDR Yamaha team for 2013. Image: FiftySix Clix/Grant Reynolds.

I’m pretty much in full swing now, just riding as much as I can and I’m travelling around a fair bit actually. I had to go down to Geelong yesterday to get my practice bike all freshened up and see all the boys at CDR Yamaha, so that was all good.

Each week I’m trying to ride as much as I can, but it’s been kind of tough for riding because the tracks have been pretty dry and dusty. So I’ve been riding a lot and doing a lot of off the bike training as well, at the gym, cycling, running and I’m definitely looking forward to when the series starts.

Also I’m trying to do some club days as well, to get a little bit of racing under my belt before the series gets going. We’ve got the series launch at Raymond Terrace on the 27th of February, so that should be pretty fun. I think we’ll start off testing around then as well.

I’m pretty happy with the bike, I’m not going to change a whole lot. The bike hasn’t changed too much from last year, but we’ll go through testing and it should be all good. We’ve got Billy Mackenzie on the team for this year and that should be good, he’s been over there and done all the GPs and stuff – he’s got a motocross-only deal and it should be a fun year for sure.

I’m a lot better off now than I was at this time last year, I’ve done all of the testing and I’m familiar with the team and the bike. It’s probably less stressful right now and it’s going to be good I think.

Bopping is planning to enjoy his racing more in 2013. Image: FiftySix Clix/Grant Reynolds.

I’m looking forward to working with the CDR Yamaha team again, we’ve sort of figured each other out a little bit last year, so we know what to expect a bit more. It’s going to be a tough class again.

There’s more guys stepping up to the 450s, so it’s probably one of the hardest years – every year just seems to be getting harder and harder, but it should be good fun.

I’d like to be up the front, of course. But I don’t know, it sort of feels weird, I have a weird feeling about this year. Usually at this time of the year I’m like “oh this guy’s doing that and he’s going to be super fast”, but right now I’m not even worried about anyone at the moment for some reason and I’m just doing my thing at home.

I’m motivated and I really want to go well. Maybe it’s just because it’s my third year in the 450 class and I’ve raced pretty much all of those guys before, I’m more relaxed than what I have been in previous years. It’ll be tough for sure, but I’ll just try to be consistent, get good starts and ride my best, same as every year.

That’s all you can do really, I’ll just try my best every race, enjoy it and not let a bad race ruin my week after the race, because that’s happened to me a lot in the past. I really just want to have a bit more fun this year, but for sure I’ll be doing my best and that’s it.