As the 2012 Monster Energy MX Nationals gears up to hit its mid-point of the series, we see the riders and teams make the trip to Conondale in Queensland this weekend.

Conondale’s fast flowing circuit served as last year’s season opening round and will be the focus of this week’s edition of Rewind.

For 2012’s Conondale round the hype surrounded Carlton Dry Honda Racing’s Ben Townley as he prepared to contest two rounds of the series before heading to the US as a fill-in rider on Chad Reed’s TwoTwo Motorsports team.

Townley dominated the MX1 class with a convincing sweep of the three-moto format, but as we all know, he would go down hard at Coonabarabran’s round two and put an end to his season – in hindsight, kicking off his road to eventual retirement.

In the MX2 class it was Kirk Gibbs who scored himself the overall win aboard his Serco Yamaha. The South Australian was in form and looked to be the man to beat for the remainder of the year.

Fellow MX2 contender and rookie of the class Errol Willis showed impressive form aboard his Raceline Pirelli Suzuki and landed himself a solid third overall spot on debut.

Ford Dale second in the MX2 class aboard his Carlton Dry Honda Racing entry. Dale would go on to clinch the title over Serco Yamaha’s Luke Styke in a nail-biting season finale at Coolum.

Looking back at 2012’s Conondale event provides stark contrast to current time. Townley is no longer professionally racing and Todd Waters who earned himself third last year is now the unofficial ‘man’ in the premier class.

Waters, of the Motorex KTM team is now joined by 2012 MX2 winner Gibbs in the premier class. After winning the 2012 opener, Gibbs suffered a rough season and is currently building himself back up aboard his KTM 450 SX-F.

As we saw with Townley, one year a rider can be right in the mix and the next he’s gone – but some may be gone at their own will, others such as Willis are not so lucky.

After a stellar Under 19s career, Willis endured a bumpy rookie season in the MX2 class and saw himself out of a job as the 2013 season rolled around. These days Willis pops up in the KTM 2-Stroke Cup, but that’s about it.

Check out MotoOnline.com.au’s films from the 2012 Conondale event below and take a look back at what went down last year as we prepare to do it all again in just a few days time.