You’ve got to hand it to 23-year-old Victorian Taylor Potter, the guy has a dream and is trying his hardest to make it come true. And you know what? He’s on track to see it all happen. The improvements in his riding from 12 months ago until now have been impressive.

With the Honda rider eyeing off a podium at the final round of the Terex Australian Supercross Championships at Toowoomba, and a full-blown 2014 American Supercross campaign, we thought it was high time we caught up with him and offered him an open mic for this edition of Fast Thoughts.

Taylor Potter has been a standout in supercross this season. Image: Grant Reynolds/FiftySix Clix.

My Australian supercross season so far…

I didn’t have the best preparation heading into the series. I changed from KTM to Honda after 10 years shortly before the championship started. I’m receiving help from XPR Racing in California and he highly recommended I change to Honda, as they’ll get me the best results.

Now that I’m getting used to the bike the series has got better for me as it’s gone on. The highlight would have to be at Mount Gambier where I holeshot the heat and led until the last couple of corners. In a couple of the finals I’ve been able to run with the top three, but my fitness has let me down towards the end of the race.

Racing the AMA Supercross this year…

Earlier this year I raced a few rounds of the East Coast series, which had always been a dream of mine. I did a lot of research and decided to do the East Coast series because most of the rounds were indoors and wouldn’t be affected by the weather. We didn’t have any pressure washers and the team consisted of myself and my girlfriend, who was my mechanic and pit boarded for me.

The first race was at Daytona and it scared the crap out of me. You see it on TV, but you can’t describe or prepare yourself for it until you walk around it in person. The whole trip was a massive learning experience and riding with the likes of Gavin Faith and Kyle Peters at MTF really showed me just how hard you have to work to be competitive.

Riding as a privateer in the USA…

It was hard work. I worked full-time for five years as an electrician, gained my apprenticeship to get something behind me and saved enough money to give it a good crack. We drove around in an RV but took out the kitchen table so we could put the bike in, and tied the bike down with the seat belts.

People would look at us in disbelief at the races, but we did what we had to do and had a great time. Trying to sleep in the RV with all the race gas was pretty intense though!

Potter will target the podium at Toowoomba’s season finale next month. Image: Grant Reynolds/FiftySix Clix.

Improvements on last year’s supercross series…

Last year I ended up eighth overall, but I was definitely eighth, if that makes sense. This year I’m within half a second of the top three guys and it feels good to be in contention with the riders who haven’t worked a full day in their lives.

I’ve definitely improved with the help of XPR and feel like the engine and suspension package I have now is streets ahead of what I had last year. As for the supercross series, it’s good to see it develop from last year. I’m not a fan of the double-day events and I like racing supercross under lights instead of during the day, but that’s all I’d change.

Plans for the next year…

I’m about to head north and race the two-round Queensland Supercross Championship that starts this weekend, then race Toowoomba, where I’m hoping to get on the podium. From then I’m focusing racing the entire AMA East Coast Supercross Championship, flying over on January 17.

My aims there are to make every main event, then race a couple of the AMA Motocross Championship, before returning to Australia and race the last half of the MX Nationals, then the Australian Supercross Championship again.

It’ll be a long season, but my dream is to ride for the Carlton Dry Honda team next year and I’m going to work as hard as I need to in order to make it happen.