Jay Wilson is aiming to take home the 2013 Monster Energy MX Nationals MXD title. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

GYTR Yamaha’s Jay Wilson is feeling confident as he heads into his final Monster Energy MX Nationals season as a contender in the highly competitive MXD category.

Wilson feels comfortable with his new setup after making the recent switch to his all-new Yamaha-backed outfit for 2013, putting in plenty of hours on the bike testing and training.

The Queensland native is currently staying in New South Wales with Serco Yamaha’s Luke Clout, the two riding and training as a pair in preparation for the 14 April season opener.

“Everything’s going pretty good, we’ve just been doing a lot of testing and I’ve been doing a lot of riding,” said Wilson. “I’m down here riding with Luke Clout at the moment, so everything’s going good.

“The bike’s feeling great, the team is good and I’m just trying to get as much time as I can on the bike before the first round. I’m really looking forward to getting out there and just doing some racing.”

Wilson made his way over to New Zealand recently to race selected rounds of the New Zealand Motocross Championships, in addition he also gained valuable testing and riding time with Josh Coppins.

“The results weren’t overly great over there, but I definitely rode good over there.” he explained. “I was staying with Josh Coppins and that was our main focus, just going over there and riding with Josh – just learning a bit off Josh and getting ahead of everything.

“It was good over there, that was out main focus to ride with Josh and I’ve learnt a lot. I think doing a couple of races over there did help, but they weren’t out main focus – we were just over there getting some testing done and learning.”

Being his final year in the MXD class, the 18-year-old is planning to put in a consistent effort and come away with the 2013 MXD title before making the step into the MX2 class for next year.

“The goal is to get the championship and move up to MX2, but it’s a long year ahead and we’ll just be chipping away,” he added. “We’ve got a long season and we’ll just go race by race and hopefully we can podium every round. That’s the goal, to podium every round and take that championship at the end of the year.”

Wilson will kick off his 2013 MXD championship campaign on 14 April at the 2013 Monster Energy MX Nationals season opener at Raymond Terrace.