Image: Chonnie McCosh.

Highly-capable North Queenslander Caleb Ward will make his full-time return to the Australian MX Nationals in 2018 after securing a deal to lead a new-look Davey Husqvarna Race Team.

Separate to the MX2 title-winning Davey Motorsports KTM team, Ward will ride MX1 and is to be joined by Kaleb Barham in MX2 and Riley Ward – younger brother of Caleb – in MXD.

It’s an exciting step for the 20-year-old Ward, who had his lone season in the MX2 World Championship last year cut short through injury. Following a series of corrective surgeries in the latter-stages of 2017, he is in training to make an anticipated debut in the premier class locally.

“It’s been a while since I’ve raced MX Nationals and last year was a pretty rough one,” Ward told MotoOnline.com.au. “I learned a lot, but it’s not one that I really want to think about too much obviously [laughs]. It’s been good to get my knees fixed and my shoulder as well, so that will help me a lot this year.

“Moving up to the 450 this year, I thought it was going to be a bit more difficult, but I felt really comfortable straight-away and I have 30 hours on my bike already. The Husky has really smooth power and I was expecting it to be a bit more of a handful after having so much time off the bike, but I feel like I’ve adapted pretty quickly.

“I’ll go down to Melbourne soon, do some testing and get it dialled in to suit me that little bit better. It’s obviously really great stock, but there are just a few little things to get it set up for me and that will be awesome. I didn’t know what to expect following the surgeries, so I’m surprised how good I feel on the bike already.”

Ward has established himself as one of Australia’s most respected young riders in recent seasons, claiming a career-best of second in the 2016 MX Nationals MX2 championship as part of the factory KTM Motocross Racing Team prior to travelling overseas to Europe with the 8Biano Racing Husqvarna operation last year.