Image: Foremost Media.

Popular American Phil Nicoletti has teamed up with Yamalube Yamaha Racing to enter this weekend’s AUSX Open Supercross, collaborating with personal backing from Jettson.co for Melbourne.

Nicoletti, 35, is only recently retired from full-time competition at the professional level and was scheduled to ride a CDR YZ450F in SX1 this weekend, but a chance opportunity will see him on track for Yamaha in SX2.

“It’s been awesome!” Nicoletti told MotoOnline. “Jettson.co actually brought me out as my title sponsor for the weekend and I’m looking forward to it. I’ve always enjoyed coming to Melbourne – I’ve been here three years in a row now – and it’s really cool to be a part of Australian Supercross.

“This was a last-minute switch because I was supposed to ride a CDR 450 and then Yamaha needed a 250 guy, so I’ll do that. I’m going to race WSX in Abu Dhabi as well, so there is a bit to come together, but it will all fall into place come tomorrow.

“I’ve raced the 250 a lot in supercross and I tried the bike today, so it’s a little bit easier back on the 250 here because I haven’t been riding much. Three main events tomorrow and hopefully the goal is still to get on the box and make it worthwhile for everybody.”

Nicoletti has strong ties to Australia from earlier in his career and has since become a fan favourite internationally, which will see him line up with a lot of local support on Saturday night. He’s then expected to join the CDR Yamaha team in the World Supercross Championship (WSX) finale in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.