Over the years Ryan Marmont has certainly become a household name within the Australian motocross and supercross scene, not to mention briefly popping his head up in the US with impressive performances.

With his long-time JDR Motorsports team shutting their doors for 2013, Marmont was left scrambling for a ride heading into the new year. Luckily he picked up a deal with the Raceline Pirelli Suzuki team and so far it looks to be a winning combination.

Marmont made his way to New Zealand over the weekend to compete in the third round of their motocross series and the MX2 veteran walked away with the win on debut for his new team. MotoOnline.com.au caught up with Marmont to talk about his performance and his to hear his thoughts on his all-new outfit for this year.

Ryan Marmont took the MX2 win at Pukekohe’s round three of the New Zealand Motocross Championships. Image: Jeff Crow/The Sport Library.

Firstly, congratulations on your New Zealand MX2 victory, you must be feeling good about taking home the win on debut for your new team?

This year has been great for me, it’s been such a different thing to go riding each day. It’s all new again, on a bike that I’ve never rode – I rode Yamaha’s for one year, but I’ve been with KTM for a long time.

It’s been a great switch to the Raceline Pirelli Suzuki team and we went to New Zealand on the weekend and had a good race over there and I think it’s definitely a good start to the year.

Had you been planning to head over to New Zealand, or was this just a last minute deal? What kind of preparation did you have in lead up to the event?

I actually wanted to do the whole series, but unfortunately I wasn’t quite ready when it came to their first two rounds. Even for this round I was well under prepared. It was the first time I’d ridden a 2013 bike and we went with very minimal parts.

I basically rode a standard bike over there that Daryl Hurley hooked me up with and first impressions of that were great. I got awesome starts and it handles really well around the track, so it’s kind of exciting for us to move into the season over here – I can’t wait to get out bikes to where we know we can get them to.

Heading into the Monster Energy MX Nationals season, having all of these positives within your new program must be a big boost to your level of confidence for 2013?

Yeah, it definitely is. Like I said, we were kind of going there in the unknown of where we would be at. I think with the way that we raced the round over there, it feels like we’re going to have a very promising year.

The Raceline team is putting in a huge effort this year, my mechanic Benny Lane has had sleepless nights working away and he’s the same as me. He’s starting from scratch with a new bike as well.

We’ve got some great sponsors on board this year and some good riders. Young Geran Stapleton I think will turn some heads also, and all-in-all I think we should have some solid rides this year and definitely be a contender for the championship.

Marmont looks to have found a good home with the Raceline Pirelli Suzuki crew after a long relationship with JDR Motorsports and KTM. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

Obviously the results show that you are fairly comfortable with your new set up, but you do have a completely new outfit for this season, with the new team, new bike and new gear. Do you think the transition has been easier or harder than you had anticipated?

At the time when I was doing the deal, it was actually quite hard. I was concentrating on the supercross last year, and while trying to keep everything focused on that, I also had in the back of my mind the question of will I be racing this year?

Once I started making contact with the Raceline team, I had a really good gut feeling that we were going to have something really well established this year. After I signed the contract, everything just started to kind of fall into place really well, mechanic wise and sponsorship wise.

I think we have some great products on board and definitely it will boost the profile of the team and the riders that are on it. As I said, I think we will definitely be a standout when the time comes to race this year.

As you mentioned, Geran Stapleton will be riding alongside you for the 2013 season. Do you think the combination of your experience and his young, go getter attitude will work well together?

Yeah, definitely. I think that throughout the year we will be spending quite a bit of time together. I haven’t had much to do with Geran at this stage, but he seems like a really nice kid. As you said, the young guys are really eager to get out there and make it happen.

Currently he’s about to go over to Millsaps Training Facility, he wants to get a head start as well on the year. I had the option to go there, but in the back of my mind I knew that the guys in New Zealand are not going slow and they’re already three rounds in now.

So for me it was a really good fit to take the option to go to New Zealand, and for him it was a great fit to be able to go to the Millsaps Training Facility to help boost his speed and confidence that way.

As I said, there are definitely some good wheels in motion with the team and we’ll keep plodding away and know what we’re going to strive for this year.