Image: Jeff Crow.

KTM Motocross Racing Team’s Kirk Gibbs will cast his mindset forward toward 2015 after falling short of this year’s Monster Energy MX Nationals championship.

Gibbs finished runner-up in the MX1 standings despite a strong performance at Coolum’s season-ending round on Sunday, where he narrowed the gap to eventual champion Matt Moss from 37 to 13 across three tough 20-minute motos.

“All we could do today was go out and leave nothing on the table and we did,” Gibbs recalled. “The boys and I played around with some set up and stuff and we were right on, the bike was fantastic. It’s good to come so close to the title, and I learnt a lot this year, to hopefully be better again next year and hopefully win this title.”

Gibbs started out the round with a convincing moto one win, before a mishap off the start of moto two forced him to claw his way back up to third. He finished off the round with second in moto three.

“I don’t really know what happened on that second start,” he explained. “Just that me, Jake [Moss] and Jacob Wright were all reasonably close, and we all got tangled up, and she was a handful to hang on to.

“I was lucky to get out of that one, and the heart rate was through the roof – it took me a little way to get into that race because my heart rate was so high. I had to just concentrate on my breathing to get it down. It was something to remember.”

It’s anticipated Gibbs will return to the official KTM outfit for a third consecutive season next year, with 2013 MX2 champion Luke Styke linked to the second factory 450 SX-F.