I came into the season pretty good, I finished off in America and had a good lead up into the season. The first couple of rounds were pretty good as well, I was riding well. At the first round I went down in the first lap of the first moto, so I had to come back through, but I think that was one of my best rides all year.

I actually crashed in both races, they were just little tip overs, but the track was pretty tough. I went out of there with a seventh place overall finish. The next round was a bit better again, I made it into the Super Pole at Murray Bridge and then I got bad starts and always found myself coming through.

The last moto of the day was pretty good, I was third. So I was getting better and better. Wonthaggi was better again, I qualified first and then made a mistake in Super Pole on that one lap, so I ended up qualifying fifth. It wasn’t too bad though, I like that track and the dirt was really good. I ended up fourth overall at Wonthaggi.

So I kept on getting better and better as the season went on and then we went to Broadford. I felt good, I was confident because I had done a bit of testing before that round. I went into it and the track was perfect on Saturday, they had put a lot of dirt and topsoil all over it – but then someone went to town with the water.

Lawson Bopping is searching for improved results as the series enters its second half. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

It didn’t even look that wet on Sunday morning until I watched the lites guys go out and they were just going so slow, it was like a full on mud race. So that was a bit of a bummer actually because the track was prepared as good as it’s ever been, and then someone stuffed up with the water.

I struggled a bit there in the mud. The first race I was riding pretty good, but it was so one-lined that I couldn’t even pass. Even by the end of the day you couldn’t even swap lines to get around guys. It was one dry line, if you got off it you were in slop. So that pretty much sums up my day, I didn’t ride too bad, I got average starts and I just didn’t ride that well either.

Conondale, it rained all week before it. So it was really muddy in practice and first moto was real muddy – it was a fairly tough day. The track is funny there, it looks really good and seems like it would be really fun to ride on. But to race on, it’s really slippery and it’s just not what it looks like.

I’ve never really gone that great there, but it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t have any crashes or anything, so that was good. But again, I just didn’t ride that well in the mud. But in the last moto that big step down dried out enough so I could get a good run at it, but it was super sketchy. The run up wasn’t that good and the landing was all rutted.

So I jumped that thing twice in the last moto, so that was pretty cool. I was sitting in fifth or something with nobody around me, so I figured I had to send it. That was super sick, but my overall result wasn’t real great. After that I had two weeks off the bike, I just needed to get away from riding a little bit.

Bopping took fourth overall at Murray Bridge, his best finish of the season. Image: Jeff Crow/Sport the Library.

So that was good, I’m back into riding and training again now. I’m sitting fifth in the championship and that’s not too bad, it’s not disastrous, but it’s not real great either. My season has been pretty good besides the last two rounds which were a bit ordinary.

The break has been good, I’ve just got away for two weeks to chill out. But now I’m back into it and I did a club day at Canberra last weekend, that was pretty fun. I’ve also got another race on this weekend at Kembla, the East Coast MX race. So hopefully that’s good, but it’s meant to rain so that might be postponed.

The next few tracks should be good, Appin isn’t my favourite track, but it can be good. Hervey Bay, I went well there last year so that should be good and I haven’t been to Swan Hill, but I heard the dirt is pretty good so I’m looking forward to that one. Toowoomba and Coolum finish up the year and I like Coolum.

I’m looking forward to the next five rounds and we could be on the new 2014 Yamaha’s by the end of the season, so that’s exciting. We won’t be on them for the next round, but we’ll see how everything goes. I haven’t ridden one yet, but I’ve heard from test riders that it’s really good. Exciting times ahead!