The opening round of any national championship always brings to the fore a huge range of revelations. One day of racing washes away an entire realm of speculation and hearsay, and proves one way or another which riders are enjoying sizzling form and which ones need to go back to the drawing board.

With that in mind, MotoOnline.com.au jotted down 10 of the most telling factors to come out of round one of the Motul MX Nationals at Horsham on Sunday.

Image: Rhys van Slooten.

1. Matt Moss has returned:
MX1 class, beware: the champ is back and is feeding off people’s criticism and doubts like a hungry pig at the trough. More than a few people wrote the 2013-2014 MX1 champ off after a horrible 2015 then jumping from the now-defunct Motul Suzuki team to Troy Carroll’s National Pump and Energy Monster Energy Kawasaki outfit. After claiming the round win at Horsham, Mossy has fired a huge warning shot across the bows of his rivals: dismiss him at your peril.

2. The MX2 class is going to be intense:
If the 50 minutes of racing we witnessed at Horsham is anything to go by, the fight for the MX2 title is going to be heavy this year. To give you an idea of how tight it’s looking, just four points separate the top five contenders of Caleb Ward, Nathan Crawford (who was the most consistent of the field with 3-3 results), Jake Moss, Wilson Todd and Jed Beaton. And that’s with Dylan Wills and Wade Hunter having shockers; you can expect to see them featuring up the front of the pack this year as well, causing a veritable log-jam of suitors to the MX2 throne.

3. Todd Waters can ride fast, even with a flat tyre:
It the cliché saying “you win championships on your bad days” rings true, Wilsons Coolair Motul Factory Suzuki’s Todd Waters practically has one hand on the MX1 trophy. While in third and hounding defending champion Kirk Gibbs in the opening race, Waters punctured his front tyre and rode almost half the race battling a bike that handled like a wet noodle and still finished an incredible ninth. He backed that up with a third in the second moto to finish the day in fifth. Sure it’s not the start he would’ve been hoping for, but he impressed the hell out of a lot of people with his determination in that first race.

4. Jake Moss thrives on a 250F:
National Pump and Energy Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jake Moss was probably lucky to retain his seat on the team after missing an entire year of racing with injuries, but the 27-year-old is already repaying the team’s faith in him with an impressive third overall at Horsham. After an 18-month hiatus between national races, Moss could’ve been forgiven if he’d eased into the MX2 title hunt, but he well and truly made his intentions known that he’s here to win. An emphatic runner-up to Caleb Ward in the opening race was backed up with a fourth in the second race. It’s evident he’s relishing the return to action and having his twin brother Matt on the same team is certainly going to have huge benefits for both of them.

5. Lawson Bopping still hates Horsham:
Every rider has tracks that they gel with more than others and that they look forward to. It’s a shame, then, that for the past two years the MX Nationals has started at a track that DPH Motorsport Yamaha Lawson Bopping detests with a passion and he’s then forced to play catch-up for rest of the year. 2016 will be no different after an average outing (by his standards) in a stacked MX1 class around the hard-pack Horsham circuit. Boppo finished 11th overall with 11-10 results and was well off the pace of the front-runners all day.

Image: Rhys van Slooten.

6. Dean Ferris is a big threat this year:
The best-placed Australian at the New Zealand MX Nationals, CDR Yamaha’s Dean Ferris, started his 2016 domestic campaign in the best possible way with a resounding win in the opening MX1 scrap. Ferris also qualified for Super Pole but opted not to race for the extra points after encountering bike troubles. In the second moto the former MXGP star was sitting in third before he took a digger and had to settle for sixth and third overall. Still, all the signs point to Ferris living up to the expectations of being a massive contender for the 2016 MX1 championship.

7.The quality of Aussie racing is world-class:
Gone are the days that Australian racers are the poor outcasts of the motocross world and well off the international pace. After Horsham it’s very, very obvious that the quality of racers we have the pleasure of regularly watching are world class. Many expected Dean Ferris and Todd Waters to tear the MX1 class to shreds after several years banging elbows with the world’s best on the MXGP circuit. Then when Brett Metcalfe was ringed in for the first few rounds it seemed that the podium would be a complete shut-out. Not so. Yes Deano won a race and Waters had bad luck with his flat front tyre, but the biggest telling factor was seeing Metty finish 5-5 for sixth overall. Our domestic guys are killing it, no two ways about it

8. Serco rookies love Horsham:
Last year new Serco Yamaha recruit Jed Beaton did the unthinkable when he stepped up from the MXD class to claim the MX2 overall at Horsham. Guess what happened this year? Wilson Todd, the 2015 MXD champ, surprised everyone by storming to a memorable debut win in the second race. A sixth in the opening hit-out set fire to any chances of him making the podium, but his early form will be causing all sorts of consternation among the other teams.

9. Caleb Ward is living up to the hype:
All the pre-season talk surrounding the MX2 class wasn’t about whether North Queensland’s Caleb Ward could win or not, but how much he could win by. He admitted himself that the hype and expectation weighed heavy on him at Horsham, but he’s obviously one of those types who can thrive when the blowtorch is applied. Battling the ever-present nerves, Wardy got a great start in the opening race and never looked like giving up his eventual eight-second lead. In the second race the KTM Motocross Racing Team’s new MX2 factory rider snagged a horrible start and battled from near the back of the pack to finish fifth, which was just enough to stand on top of the dais at the end of the day.

10. Kirk Gibbs will be tough to beat:
KTM Motocross Racing Team’s number-one gun Kirk Gibbs might’ve been coming off a lengthy injury and shortened pre-season in the lead-up to Horsham, but he was quick to remind everyone why he’s the defending champion. For his rivals, Gibbs has the maddening Ryan Dungey-like knack of hauling in points even if he doesn’t win races. His 2-2 results combined with his Super Pole point saw him finish the weekend tied for the points lead with his arch-rival Matt Moss, but without the fanfare and headlines. Gibbsy just gets it done week in, week out and that means his rivals have to bring their A-game every single time they hit the track and eliminate any errors if they want to stick with him.