Empire Kawasaki signing Reid Taylor has been one of the major revelations of 2024, culminating with his first-career ProMX podium in the MX2 class at Toowoomba, and delivering on the promise displayed during the earlier stages of his career. MotoOnline caught up with the 20-year-old from Coffs Harbour to get his Fast Thoughts on his season to date.

Image: Foremost Media.

Achieving a career-first MX2 round podium at Toowoomba…

It was a good feeling to get that first podium, especially on such a tough track. I was looking good for a podium at Maitland, but I had some issues with the bike there. Still, it was great to get a good result at Toowoomba, both for the team for myself, and to show what I can do. It was a bit of a slow start to the year, but I feel like I’m finally finding my feet. Toowoomba was a tough track and one of the ruttiest, roughest tracks I’ve ever ridden, but I got a decent start in that last race, and it was just a matter of keeping the mistakes to a minimum and bringing it home.

Pushing for race wins in recent rounds…

At the start of the year I was struggling with bike set-up and suspension. I ended up going back and using my own suspension guy and, after a bit of back-and-forth, I’ve got the bike in a really good spot now. Getting good starts certainly helps too, because when I try and come through the pack, I sometimes have a tendency to get stuck in the behind someone and drop down to their pace, but when I start up front, I can keep a good flow and run at the speed I’m comfortable at. It all comes down to getting a good start and then locking onto the leaders. If I can keep doing that, I know more good results will come my way.

Riding for Empire Kawasaki this year…

Last year I was a privateer for motocross, then rode for the Raceline Husqvarna Racing Team for supercross. Bayden Blanchette helps me out a lot and he helped bring about the deal with Empire Kawasaki. I spoke with the team manager, Tyson Cherry, during the supercross championship last year, and organised to test the Kawasaki over Christmas time, and things fell into place from there. I’m really enjoying being part of the team and having Brad McAlpine come over from the CDR Yamaha team has been a real positive too. We’ve had a few mechanical issues this year, which has been a bit frustrating, especially at Murray Bridge where the bike stopped in the first moto, but there’s a real good vibe in the team and we all get along really well.

Image: Foremost Media.

Racing and winning the Indian Supercross Racing League…

I was unsure whether I’d do Indian supercross, but Matt Moss convinced me to register with him. For the first round we had to drive six hours to a town, then we had to wait a few days for the race and I was a bit over it all, but I ended up winning there and after that I forgot all about the bad stuff! The whole series ended up being really well run, organised, and it was promoted really well. The fans were awesome and the stadiums were always packed. There wasn’t much in the way of prizemoney and bonuses, but the sign-ons were good, as the teams bid for you before the season starts. Now that I’ve won the 250 International class, the bids next year will be higher, which is good for me. Matt and I were keen to stay with the same team we were with last year, but we don’t get a say, as it comes down to who bids the highest. To be honest, this year’s schedule was pretty tough. They had rounds every two weeks and I was still trying to train for ProMX, so I’d race there, fly back jet-lagged, do a few days on the bike, then have to pack up and fly back again. Next year they want to expand the championship to five rounds, with three rounds back-to-back, so we’ll probably look to stay over there for those three rounds. It should be really interesting.

Intentions for the rest of the year…

I prefer more hard-pack tracks like Maitland, Toowoomba and MX Farm, so I’m hoping to get a win before the end of the season. I ride with Ford Dale’s program on the Sunshine Coast and train with guys like Luke Clout and Kirk Gibbs every day, so MX Farm is one of the tracks we ride every week, and I’ve done a fair few laps around there. I’ve also had decent results at QMP in the past, so I’m hoping for a strong finish to the season before we then move to the Australian Supercross Championship. I’ll probably go back to Coffs to train for supercross, as we’ve got property and I’m getting a track built there. If I do well, I’d like to earn a wildcard entry to the Perth round of World Supercross, but we’ll see how the season goes.