AUSTRALIAN MOTOCROSS
We’re coming closer to the Horsham MX Nationals season opener in Victoria to be held on the last weekend of the month, with defending series champion Jay Marmont proving the ultimate favourite so far on our Moto Poll in the sidebar on the right.

There’s something about the lead-up to the season that’s so exciting, with this year set to be even more spectacular than the all-CDR Rockstar Yamaha battle that we had one year ago.

Speaking of CDR, the announcement last week that Rockstar was onboard for another three seasons was good news for the team, with the energy drink spreading its resources over to the Yamaha development team as well as the factory Suzuki team.

Craig Anderson could be the surprise package in the MX Nationals for 2010.

Back to round one and when the gates drop, who really knows where Billy Mackenzie and Cody Cooper stand at this point? There’s no doubt that they have what it takes to run up front, however the question remains whether or not they can rise above the desire of two-time defending champion Marmont.

Last weekend’s Stadium Motocross finale at Maitland in New South Wales gave us an opportunity to see Craig Anderson in action on his Husqvarna for the first time officially, and judging by his clean-sweep for the weekend you’d have to seriously count him as a dark horse for podiums and even race wins through the Nationals.

It was also cool to see the winner of the Pro Lites was Luke George, returning from his serious head injury at Coolum’s final round of the MX last year, however nobody is certain of his deal for this year just yet.

The only fact we do know for sure is that he’ll be on Kawasaki machinery again, with whispers behind the scenes indicating that he’ll have Monster Energy support in a team that will see him pitted with Chad Reed for the Super X series – remember that Georgey used to ride for Chad Reed Racing a few short years ago.

Either way, it’s cool to see him come back strong and ready to roll come race time in a few weeks.

One kid to keep an eye on in the Nationals this year is Luke Stykes, the Yamaha development rider who has shown he is ultra fast as well as exciting to watch in action.

Stykes has been training and putting in the laps with the likes of Jay and Ryan Marmont, as well as Dan McCoy recently, so don’t be surprised to see him up front battling for wins from the outset.

DMC actually did end up riding in the Australian Of-Road Championship opener at Port Macquarie last weekend, contesting the mud-fest Cross Country on the Saturday before packing up shop and heading home before Sunday came around.

McCoy rode a stock standard 450SX-F (complete with headlight) to the top 10 overall in Outright, while finishing in the top five in E2 after a battle with former three-time champ AJ Roberts for much of the race.

While on the subject of the Pro Lites, look out at Horsham for both Cameron Taylor and Kim Ashkenazi to contest the class on 250cc two-strokes. We hinted that Taylor was looking to do it and got confirmation at last month’s World Superbike round that he would be, while Ashkenazi is back on a Suzuki RM250 and certainly hopeful of putting it to the young guns of the sport armed with their latest four-strokes. That’s going to be one to watch!

We’ll be there for round one and all the rest, so stay tuned for some pretty cool things that we have in the works to give you all the complete package of the Nationals when combined with the cool stuff that FullNoise and co. are also doing.

While on the topic of websites, check out the new official series site at www.mxnationals.com.au – once again a credit to Williams Event Management on getting the series run in a first class way.

Finally, if you’re keen for the Nationals, how about signing up for our MX vs ATV Reflex outdoor series that’s scheduled to start next week (on either Wednesday or Thursday). Check out the forum for details to be posted soon.

AMERICAN SUPERCROSS
I really don’t have that much to write about American Supercross this week, but if you want to inside scoop then get yourself a Twitter account and follow the stars of the sport first hand – it really does make for entertaining reading.

But the big rumour this week is that Dan Readon and the Moto Concepts Yamaha team have split midway through the season. I’ve heard this via a number of sources both here and in the US, however there’s been no confirmation as yet.

It would be a real shame for Reardo if it is true, but considering Dan McCoy split with the team around this time last year (around the 10th round at Daytona if I remember correctly) then it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for them to leave their ride mid-season.

Watch this space…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERBIKE
Hidden Valley’s second round of the 2010 season is just around the corner, the Northern Territory circuit returning to the ASBK series for the first time in over 10 years.

If you’ve picked up today’s edition of AMCN you would have noticed a story in there about veteran three-time series champion Shawn Giles stating that his experience at the circuit over the younger generation won’t be an advantage come race time.

Well it definitely won’t be an advantage for him over some teams, with a pre-race test said to be in the works and organised by one of the leading teams in the series right now. It’s a long trip for a test to be there a week or so in advance, however every advantage counts over such a short series.

The NT round will see a returning face in former champion Craig Coxhell onboard a Southbank-supported BMW S 1000 RR, however when speaking to him on Monday he did say the team is still in search of sponsorship.

It’s awesome to see Coxhell back once again with his CJC Racing privateer effort, and the BMW Superbike may just be the perfect weapon for him to return to the glory that he enjoyed earlier in his career once it’s developed.

The countdown continues….

While we’re waiting for Hidden Valley, here’s a quick shout out to current Australian Supersport Championship leader Troy Herfoss, who took his Motocross bike racing at Mt Kembla in Wollongong last weekend and won the first round of the club championship in the A-grade class. Is there anything that the 2008 AMA Supermoto Champion can’t do?

MOTOGP
This week marks the final pre-season test of the year when it comes to MotoGP, scheduled to be held under the floodlights in Qatar at the Losail Circuit.

It will be the first time that we see the latest and greatest in updated equipment test outside of Malaysia this year, and like I said in The Go this week, Casey Stoner will have what it takes to go up against Vale Rossi for the series this year once the race season officially kicks off next month.

The good thing about the Qatar test is that Jorge Lorenzo will be back alongside Rossi at Fiat Yamaha, although don’t expect the Spaniard to be 100 percent fit at this stage.

Also battling full fitness is Andrea Dovizioso, the Italian Repsol Honda rider skipping last weekend’s team intro in favour of nursing a fever in the lead-up to the test.

Final tip of the week, keep an eye out for some cool new liveries at this test as the team’s finalise their sponsors and get poster images shot during the test before the season’s start.

Meanwhile, keep your fingers crossed for Garry McCoy this week as he takes on Valencia in a bid to lap around the 1:35 range on the FB Corse MotoGP bike that’ll grant the team permission to enter the season with its three-cylinder prototype.

As I’ve mentioned previously, Gazza also did the same deed on the Ilmor back in 2006 where you basically have to lap within three seconds of the race pace, which I think he should be able to achieve considerably comfortably.

That’s it for this week, thanks once again for reading and don’t forget to keep an eye out for a heap of updates to be filtered into MotoOnline over the coming weeks.