South Australian to focus solely on the event following MX Nationals.
Image: MXN.
KTM Motocross Racing Team’s Kirk Gibbs believes his motocross-only contract is a benefit in his selection to represent Australia at the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations (MXoN) at Matterley Basin, United Kingdom, on 1 October.
Gibbs will join current MX Nationals championship leader Dean Ferris (CDR Yamaha) and MX2 World Championship regular Hunter Lawrence (Suzuki World MX2) at the prestigious event.
With the Australian Supercross Championship commencing just a week prior to the MXoN, the 2015 MX1 champion’s unique deal will allow him to focus solely on the race, as MX1 representative Ferris will be forced to juggle preparations of both disciplines leading up the event.
“I think it helped a lot with selection,” Gibbs told MotoOnline.com.au. “Round one of Supercross is the week before Matterley Basin, so for me, when these next two rounds are over, I’ll just be focusing on the event.
“I’m really looking forward to it, otherwise I’d be sitting at home twiddling my thumbs. Now I still have another month of training hard and preparing for that.”
The South Australian is unsure if he’ll head to Europe early to prepare and climatise to the conditions, however he mentioned there are options available should he be granted the opportunity.
“I’m not 100 percent sure yet,” he continued. “But I just spoke briefly with the team yesterday about it all, so I have to sit down with them and get a rough idea on we’re going to do. I spoke to Ryan Deckert, who’s Pauls Jonass’ mechanic, and we threw around a few ideas, and he said I’m more than welcome to go over early and stay with him.
“I’m obviously really good friends with Jed Beaton, so there’s options to go over there early and do some riding, but it’s sort of down to when we can get the bike over there – I’ll sort have to work in with the team as they’ll be getting ready for supercross.”
Gibbs was selected to represent Australia last year at the MXoN, however suffered a broken femur while preparing for supercross in the lead-up to the event, denying him of the honour.
Recent
