Image: Foremost Media.

Empire Kawasaki owner Tyson Cherry has outlined the team’s structure ahead of the upcoming 2023 Australian Supercross Championship (AUSX), indicating that a deal has been made with an SX1 rider who is set to join Haruki Yokoyama and Cambell Williams in the program.

The outfit commenced AUSX last year with the line-up of Jackson Richardson (SX1), plus Yokoyama and Jai Constantinou in SX2, who parted ways with the team following the 2023 Penrite ProMX Championship.

For national motocross this year the outfit didn’t have a 450 entry, with Cherry now outlining that fielding a KX450 is on the cards for 2023 AUSX.

“Jai was on a motocross-only contract, so he didn’t have a contract for supercross, but unfortunately he was hurt, so obviously didn’t get to race motocross,” Cherry told MotoOnline. “The line-up is going to be Cambell in SX3, Haruki is going to be SX2 and by the looks of things we are going to be going into the 450 class.

“We have done a deal with someone, it’s not released yet, but everyone will know once it all comes out. It’s definitely exciting, we have definitely missed that class, so going forward we obviously want to be on the podium, week in, week out, and it’s definitely a good stepping stone for 2024 as well.”

Looking beyond Australian Supercross and into the 2024 motocross season, Taylah McCutcheon will remain with the outfit in MXW, however, it has been confirmed Empire won’t contest the MX3 class, instead focusing on a continued presence in MX2, plus MX1 with the lure of all-new 2024 model KX450.

“We won’t have MX3 next year, our plan is to be MX1 and MX2, but obviously we are still in negotiations to try and pull that off at the moment,” Cherry added. “We’ve already signed Taylah for next year, our plan is to be on the top step with her as well. I think with her progression… She is going to head over to New Zealand to do some nationals as well before round one, so I think that’s definitely going ahead there as well.”