Image: Foremost Media.

This year’s Honda Racing MX1 rider Kirk Gibbs has expressed his disappointment not to be included in the factory team’s 2022 roster, eager to explore new opportunities in an effort to keep challenging for the Penrite ProMX title.

Gibbs spent just one season with the factory Honda squad in 2021, his form accelerating before coronavirus brought the season to a premature close.

With MX2 champion Kyle Webster due to graduate to a 450 and, more recently, the return of Dean Ferris announced, Queensland-based Gibbs must find another avenue to continue.

“Obviously they’ve announced their line-up as such, I think, so it leaves me in the same boat as Metty [Brett Metcalfe] and I don’t really know where I’m at, what I’m doing,” Gibbs expressed to MotoOnline.com.au. “I can’t really tell you much more, to tell you the truth [laughs].

“It’s obviously a bit disappointing, I feel like I was you know was putting my best foot forward there at Honda with a new bike, a new team for me and it took me a little bit to keep setting the bike up to where I wanted to.

“I feel like I really got a good setting in the last sort of month or so, which would have worked out well if we raced at the end of the year. In saying that, we had eight races, I won two out of those races, Clouty [Luke Clout] won four, Metty and Regan [Duffy] [won one each]. There was only a few guys that won races and, besides Clouty, I was the only other guy that won more than one race.”

Speculation has surrounded the potential of Gibbs staying Honda-mounted, perhaps on satellite machinery backed by Honda Racing, however recent comments suggest these plans have potentially slowed. There may be multiple vacant seats if silly season talk is accurate, meaning the 2015 MX1 champion – that crown coming at KTM – could be at the top of the agenda outdoors.

“I haven’t really talked to Yarrive so much lately,” added Gibbs. “Every time I talk to him, it’s sort of been like ‘yeah I’ve got something for you, but I’m waiting on this waiting on that’… which I don’t see how that works with already signing and having his team pretty much nearly sorted. That’s where I’m at, just seeing what else is out there and what’s available.

“I’m just sort of sitting and waiting to see what would suit me best moving forward. Obviously I still want to race and, like I said, I still won two races out of eight and I feel like I was coming into some form. I feel really good on the bike at the moment, so we’ll see what plays out, I guess.”