19-year-old Victorian Kale Makeham will be the first to tell you winning the Under 19s 2012 Australian Supercross Championship has not only given him a huge confidence boost heading into 2013, but it also ripped a monkey off his back.

You see, until round six of the 2012 MX Nationals at Hervey Bay, Makeham had never won a national race. He’d won plenty of state races and titles across both motocross and enduro, but had it seemed that whenever he lined up for a national event, the nerves would set in.

“As a junior, whenever I entered the nationals, I’d freak out mentally and would ride nowhere near my potential,” the Koondrook local admits. “It was never an issue at a state level, but there was no better feeling than winning my first race at Hervey Bay, then winning my first supercross race in Toowoomba, then backing it up at Newcastle to win the supercross championship.”

After a solid junior career, Makeham stepped up to seniors in 2010, where he won the Under 19s Victorian titles and claimed the Indonesian Supercross Championship later in the year.

Kale Makeham be two-stroke mounted again for 2013 with backing from KTM in the MX2 class. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

“As a life experience, Indo was the best time I’ve ever had,” he says. “I only saw five white people in the eight weeks I was there, but to win that six-round series helped lift my confidence and made me think ‘Ok, I can do this’.”

After an eighth overall in the 2011 MX Nationals, Makeham tore his AC joint while practicing during supercross series and forced him to the couch for five months. That meant he had limited time to get in the saddle before the 2012 MX Nationals kicked off, and truth be told, he was in two minds about racing the entire series.

“Initially I had no goals except to win a moto at national level and I only planned to race the first half of the series. I picked up a bike four weeks before the series and I started getting some good results and picked up support along the way. I achieved my goal of winning a national race at Hervey Bay and it was the confidence booster I really needed. Until that moment it seemed as if a black cloud followed me around and stopped me winning national races. That’s all behind me now.”

After a fifth overall in the 2012 MX Nationals MXD class, then winning the Under 19s Supercross championship, KTM came knocking and offered him a deal to ride a KTM 250SX two-stroke in the MX2 class for 2013 – the first time a manufacturer has offered a two-stroke ride to anyone since the mid-2000s.

Makeham definitely turned some heads with his 2012 Australian Supercross Championship Under 19s title. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

“I was so surprised when KTM called me a couple days after winning the supercross championship and offered me a two-stroke ride,” he laughs. “The bike is light years ahead of what I raced last year and we’ve been doing solid testing for the past few weeks. We’re using all KTM Powerparts, with the suspension done by TuneTech Racing. I’m really excited to see what the season brings.

“I have set goals and want to show people what I’m capable of now that I’ve got the right tools in front of me,” he explains. “I’m seeing this as a learning year, but my aim is to continue improving as each round passes. If I get a fifth at round two I’ll aim for fourth at round two. If I come away from Raymond Terrace with the red plate I’m work on keeping it.”

Down the track Makeham has some pretty concrete goals: before he turns 23 he wants to win both the MX Nationals MX2 and supercross lites titles and represent Australia at the Motocross of Nations.

“Once I’m at the MXoN I’ll go all out and hopefully it’ll open up the doors to race in the USA at the AMA Supercross. I don’t think I’m necessarily a supercross specialist, but it does seem to come a lot more naturally to me.”

However it pans out, you can guarantee Kale Makeham is always working at pushing himself to the next level and to see his dreams come to fruition.