Nineteen-year-old NSW racer Hayden Mellross is currently living the dream in the US. The kid from Young is training with Tim Ferry, living with Trey Canard, and has locked in a deal to race the 2015 Monster Energy Supercross Eastern Regional 250SX Class Championship for the Storm Lake TiLube Honda team. MotoOnline caught up with Mellross over in Florida to find out exactly what’s going on and how it all came about.

Source: Supplied.

Cheers for the chat, Hayden. So you’re over in the US at the moment. What’s the go with that?

Yeah I’ve been here in Florida for two weeks, which is enough time to get settled in and we’ve started to get the bike dialed in and preparing for the 2015 East Coast AMA Supercross Championship, which is nine rounds. I’ve never done it before so it’s going to be a huge learning curve for me, but I thought I should do it while I’m young and have a good opportunity given to me.

So the plan is to just race supercross?

I want to do the outdoors, 100 percent, but for now I haven’t got a ride outdoors. I really want to turn heads in supercross and try to get something outdoors. It’ll be a dream come true to race supercross, and to do the motocross too would be even better.

How did this all come about and who’s funding this campaign?

Well, about a year ago I was here and I met Tim Ferry. He said I should come training with him and I enjoyed it so much. He made riding and training fun again and I loved every minute of it. There wasn’t one day that I didn’t want to ride, and I could see my riding improving so much just because I was having fun. After a long year in Australia I wanted to enjoy riding again and that’s why I decided to come back here and start it all up. At the end of the Australian Supercross Tim and I spoke and he offered for me to come over for 12 months. So I had a trainer, I just needed a ride. I’m really good friends with Buddy Brooks and he’s organised a satellite support team deal for me and my teammate Justin Sipes. We’ve got a deal with TiLube Oils and Storm Lake Honda, and I’m still supported by my mum and dad. They want me to be happy and pursue my goals, but I wouldn’t be able to do it without them.

You kinda touched on the fact then that you were starting to get over racing this year. Why’s that?

It’s just a really long season. If you want to be prepared you have to start training at Christmas, which everyone knows is the hottest time of year. You start in mean conditions and you have to maintain that intensity until the end of August. Basically you train eight months for only 10 races. The supercross this year was great, though. We had five rounds in five weeks and it was short and sweet. But at the end of that series you’re hanging out for a break. Halfway through this year I wasn’t meeting my expectations and I wasn’t happy with the results, and that then made me look at the big picture and all that was going on in my life. I was training on my own and it was exhausting. Here I train with Eric Grondahl and Trey Canard, and it’s really, really fun. That why I wanted to get back here and change things up.

Image: Marc Jones.

Florida is one of the main hubs for moto in the US now. Have you had much to do with the likes of Reedy since you’ve been there?

Yep, actually last week we went to Chad’s and trained with him, Michael Byrne and RJ Hampshire. It was an awesome experience. Ferry has also trained Trey Canard for three or four years and he’s here for the next three weeks until Anaheim. When the series moves back east after Dallas he’ll be back here for another six weeks. It’s pretty cool being able to train with guys like that.

For sure. What are your goals for the 2015 supercross season?

As I’ve never raced it I want to start just by making the mains and seeing where I’m at. After that I can really see myself getting some top 10s, and at the end of the season, if I do the hard work, there’s no reason why I can’t be top five. It takes a lot of hard work, but if I knuckle down I feel like I can do it. I’ve got a good group of people around me, which is the most important thing.

You had a bit of a mixed season in 2014. What was the highlight for you?

Yeah I didn’t start off so well in motocross. Jumping to the 450, I felt I could ride it well, but the biggest thing I learnt was I’m only 19 and am probably a bit immature to be in the 450 class. Outdoors was up and down, but I’d say the supercross was the highlight; I only decided 10 days before Bathurst to race, so I was unprepared for the first two rounds, but over the three-week break I got some good training down, and showed I could mix it up with the top guys over the rest of the series. To get some good results after a long and tiring season was satisfying, for sure.

Awesome, mate. Thanks for the chat and all the best for the upcoming season. We’ll be cheering for ya!

Thanks mate. Appreciate it.