Image: Adam Spence (Foremost Media).

Recently-crowned Australian MX2 champion Egan Mastin has been drafted into the KTM Motocross Racing Team for the 2017 Australian Supercross Championship where he’ll contend for the SX2 title, with the announcement also revealing he’ll form part of the team in 2018.

Mastin, who was a member of the KTM-supported Davey Motosports outfit in the MX Nationals, will also switch from the KTM 250 SX two-stroke to the 250 SX-F four-stroke for the six-round series, marking his rookie season.

The New South Welshman expressed his pleasure in signing with the squad, which will see him graduate to the premier MX1 category in 2018.

“As a young kid it’s a dream to be on a factory team, especially with KTM,” Mastin explained. “It’s awesome to get the opportunity, and I can’t wait. This is my first time doing supercross too, so I’m getting used to everything. It’s taken a few days to adapt to the 250F – it’s a similar peak power, but they hold a gear longer and you have to get used to the engine braking.

“Riding MX1 has long been a dream of mine, so I can’t wait to get amongst it, but I’m not nervous, it’s just another form of racing and I’ll go in confident. The team at KTM is an awesome group of people, well organised and they do everything to a T, so that will be awesome to work alongside and Jay is a good mentor to have with good advice. The whole package is awesome.”

Team manager and multi-time Australian champion Jay Marmont commented on the outfit’s latest prodigy, stating the youthful talent really caught his attention earlier this year at the Manjimup 15,000 when he stepped up to 450 in a one-off appearance.

“I saw Egan this year show that push-to-the-front kind of style that excites me as a team manager and reminds me of how I used to be as a racer,” Marmont revealed. “We were lucky to have a seat open up for supercross to give us time for development and to get some supercross experience under his belt.

“It’ll be a challenge for him – he’s never done supercross before, and I don’t know where he’ll be at – he’s finding his flow pretty comfortably, but with supercross, it’s one thing to practice it – another thing to race it.

“I love the fact that the kid is a winner. He left as a winner when he won the Under 19s, went to America and won a Mini-Os championship and he has that brute speed. When we put him on our 450 at Manjimup, he rose to the occasion, went out there and overtook the best riders at the time and pulled away in races.

“That definitely got my attention, and it definitely sealed the deal for me, that a: he can ride the 450, and b: he knows how to win races and believes he should be in front. It’s just a matter of fine tuning his program a little bit and there’s no doubt that he’s going to be up front in the next year.”

With Kirk Gibbs on a motocross-only deal and set to represent Australia at the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations next month, plus Luke Styke dealing with an ongoing back injury, KTM is yet to confirm its SX1 plans for the upcoming series that is scheduled to commence on 23 September at Jimboomba in Queensland.