Image: Jeff Crow.

Motorcycling Australia (MA) has announced that Horsham will host the 2017 Australian Junior Motocross Championship (AJMX). The event, which will be hosted by the Horsham Motorcycle Club, is earmarked to take place in late September.

Horsham Motorcycle Club president Kenny Watts said the club was once again looking forward to hosting the AJMX after successfully accommodating the event in 2013.

“Back in 2013 we created the format that has run over the past couple of years at the Australian Junior Motocross Championship and we think we can still improve that a little bit more,” Watts said. “We’re aiming to run it on the traditional weekend of the AFL grand final at the end of September, which fits in with the school holidays for basically everyone.”

The announcement of the 2017 AJMX makes it a double coup for the Horsham Motorcycle Club, which is also set to host the FIM World Junior Motocross Championship (WJMX) at Dooen Recreational Reserve in 2018.

Watts said he expected the 2017 AJMX to provide the perfect lead in for competitors heading into club’s centennial celebrations in 2018.

“We’re hoping that we can actually raise the profile of the Australian junior titles by being the club that is hosting the World Junior Motocross Championship in 2018, with the likelihood that we can attract international junior riders to come to an Australian title,” Watts said.

“Getting them to come across will give them good track time and will entice them to come and support it. The current format that the club is run in started in 2002 with the first MX Nationals event, and the club had a major upgrade of its facilities and since then it has just gone from strength-to strength.

“We’re doing a lot of work with the state government to improve our infrastructure at the venue to be one of the major facilities in Australia for motocross. We also had a delegation of our club head to Spain to witness the 2015 World Junior Motocross Championship and we’re hoping now that we can implement the ideas from that event into our titles for the Aussie juniors.”

Next year’s 2016 Australian Junior Motocross Championship will take place at Riverland Junior Motorcycle Club in South Australia from 24 September to 1 October.