Regular visitors to MotoOnline.com.au are well aware that we like to have some fun with a variety of different feature story concepts, and one of our latest for 2012 is ‘Five Questions Why’. We’ll contact some of the sport’s top stars why five questions beginning with ‘why’, simply for something different to keep things interesting from week to week. First up, we quizzed Berry Sweet/Lucas Oil/Yamaha team owner and rider, Craig Anderson.

The number 100 will be Yamaha mounted in 2012 with Berry Sweet/Lucas Oil/Yamaha.

Why did you switch your team to Yamaha for 2012?

Why I switched to Yamaha was because I was already talking to Luke Arbon for 2012, Yamaha wanted to keep him and I wanted him, so it sort of worked out to be a good fit. Yamaha helped us out with some support, plus Louis Calvin already had Yamahas through a dealer in WA 0 it all just fitted perfect, really. Yamaha seem really easy to work with and I’m really looking forward to it.

Why does Australian Motocross attract the world’s top internationals?

We have a good, strong series, and the pace of Australian guys has definitely stepped up. Everybody is putting in more effort, there’s a bit more sign on and more money in the sport through race teams. Everybody is starting to believe they can get rides overseas here, so they are putting more effort in to do that. I just think that our series is strong, Europe seems to be dropping off a little bit, so we have a good stepping stone that’s different and still tough.

Why was the Supercross Masters series so popular at its peak?

Christo promoted it properly, he ran a tight ship and always had massive prize money that rewarded riders for results. He went to the indoor venues, which I think is what drew the crowd. The person who’s not so much into the sport, it made them come and sit down to watch, because it was a show – he had monster trucks, laser shows, PeeWee bikes going around, juniors, and the whole show. At the end of the day, he promoted the series and was a promoter. It was on TV all the time through ads, in the newspaper and people knew about it. It wasn’t just a case of winging it and not promoting it properly.

Why will Luke Arbon be able to contend for wins this year?

I think he really wants to do well and is still fairly young. He showed during supercross that he was coming on stronger and I think if he’s comfortable and happy, we can work with him all year and make him get better and better.

Why can you personally make this season a great one on track?

We definitely have a good set-up this year, have more sponsors onboard that will make things a little bit easier, all the sponsors I had from last year are still with us, and I really want to knuckle down in my own racing. I think in the last couple of years I’ve sort of focused too much on trying to make the race team good and my own racing suffered. This year I have good people in place so I can focus on my racing a little bit more. I’ll keep focused and hopefully my racing will step up.