Image: MXN.

DPH Motorsport’s Jacob Wright will make a career-first Toowoomba Motul MX Nationals appearance this weekend in the premier MX1 class for round nine of the 2016 series.

The 21-year-old Toowoomba local looks forward to contesting his home round in front of friends and family after a string of injuries throughout his young professional career kept him from racing the event in past seasons.

“I’m so excited to race at home in front of my family and friends,” said Wright. “I haven’t actually raced a National at Toowoomba ever, I’ve always been injured every year so it’s going to be awesome.

“I was meant to race round nine at Toowoomba in 2015, but I was coming back from injury and it just didn’t happen, so this weekend will be the first time I’ve had a home round in my career.

“I’ve got a bunch of school friends coming to watch, my family, and pretty much all of the people who are around me on a daily basis will be there supporting me this weekend which will be really cool.

“Since round eight at Shepparton, I’ve been working extra hard to make sure that I can put on a good performance for everyone, so hopefully it can all come together on Sunday and we can get a good result.”

With just the Toowoomba and Coolum rounds remaining, Wright looks forward to basing himself out of the comfort of his own home to finish out the year strong.

“With two rounds remaining, I’m definitely looking to move up in the championship standings a bit,” he added. “The plan for me is to finish fifth in the championship.

“Having the last two rounds close to home means that I can sleep in my own bed, eat all of my own food out of my fridge, which doesn’t sound like much but it does make a big difference in terms of being relaxed for those rounds, and making up some extra points.”

Wright currently sits seventh overall in the MX1 championship chase after eight rounds of racing.