Image: Jeff Crow.

CDR Yamaha has advised Kade Mosig that he won’t be retained for 2016, as the popular Victorian talent becomes one of the hottest properties of the current silly season in its closing stages.

Mosig finished second in both this year’s MX Nationals and Australian Supercross Championships, however the team previously announced that Dean Ferris will be returning from MXGP with them for next year.

A championship win from Dan Reardon in supercross has sealed him the position alongside Ferris for 2016 in a downsized two-rider operation, forcing team owner Craig Dack to make the difficult decision of dropping Mosig.

While the Reardon signing is yet to be announced by the team, Mosig’s exit has been confirmed. He’s since been linked to both the NPS Monster Energy Kawasaki and DPH Peter Stevens Yamaha teams, but told MotoOnline.com.au his future remains up in the air.

“It was a pretty solid year for me,” Mosig commented. “I made some pretty big improvements in my riding and after only taking one MX Nationals podium and a win last year, to get five podiums and three round wins in motocross this year was great.

“The CDR team helped me make that step and I’ve learnt a lot from the whole team. I’ve really enjoyed being involved with everyone. Supercross also panned out pretty good, I was consistent, but not where I wanted to be. I hung on for the whole championship and we made it through for second, so it was solid and I ticked a lot of goals.

“It’s unfortunate that the CDR deal has to come to an end – it’s just the way our sport goes sometimes. I’m not going to hold anything against Dacka, at the end of the day he has to make a business decision and he’s chosen to go down another path.

“A new beginning for me will be good, although I only got 12 months to prove myself – if you want to call it that – at CDR and now it’s time to move on. At this stage I’m in the unknown, I don’t know where I stand or where I’m at, but I have to assess my options and choose the best path for me into next year.”

For Dack, the decision to release Mosig was one of the toughest things in his career as team owner, spanning over two decades. The team has also let go of young Queenslander Jacob Wright, who missed much of this year through injury.

“This was the hardest, most heart-wrenching and difficult thing I’ve had to do since running this race team,” Dack explained. “It was horrible. Kade didn’t do anything wrong, he did an exceptional job and he’s really a great guy. He rose to the occasion and worked with the team really good.

“It’s mind boggling and was really difficult to speak about. When we knew that Dean Ferris and Todd Waters were interested in coming home about three or four months ago, they were right up there in the grands prix. They’re no slouches in motocross and at that point we thought we had to jump on one of them.

“To be honest, we really didn’t know what Dan’s progress would be like and we were keeping an open mind. The way he rode in supercross and eventually winning the championship, we were caught in a spot – he is the champion, so how do we not hire him? Kade went 2-2 in motocross and supercross, but ended up with the short straw. It’s a really difficult situation.

“I’ve done all I could over the past month to raise more money for a third rider, but we just can’t find the money to do it at that level. Unfortunately with much regret we’ve had to let Kade go and we made the decision with Jacob halfway through the year, which was also a shame for a number of reasons.”

This year CDR Yamaha had three riders – Mosig, Reardon and Wright – signed for the full season, following the unique circumstance of Reardon making an 11th-hour comeback and Wright entering the year beneath an injury cloud.

With CDR Yamaha’s 2016 line-up of Ferris and Reardon all but confirmed, the final vacant factory 450 seat remains alongside Matt Moss at NPS Monster Energy Kawasaki. The team has given no indication who it will field in that position, but it’s understood it will come down to Mosig and Adam Monea, who’s been with the team for the past three years.

An announcement from Honda is imminent to confirm MX2 national champion Jay Wilson and Dylan Long have signed for a new-look factory outfit run by the title-winning Team Honda Racing superbike squad, taking over after the brand’s long association with Yarrive Konsky’s Penrite Honda Racing team. The latter will likely be supercross-only next year.

Suzuki will also be revamped into the new year with Wilson MX replacing Jay Foreman Racing to field Waters and Luke Wilson under the Factory Suzuki MX1 Racing banner, while still maintaining a technical partnership with Foreman.

KTM Motocross Racing Team has re-signed MX1 national champion Kirk Gibbs and Luke Styke, while Husqvarna is yet to announce if it will return to racing in a factory effort locally next year as per previous rumours.

The makeup of the MX2 class also remains largely up in the air, with the lone factory confirmation coming that Caleb Ward will ride within the expanded official KTM program. Serco Yamaha has made no announcement whether it will retain Luke Clout and Jed Beaton or make changes for the new year.

Speculation is also mounting that Jake Moss will step back to the MX2 class in 2016 as part of the NPS Monster Energy Kawasaki team, in what would be another boost for the category in terms of factory involvement. He has been riding a KX250F recently, but a deal is yet to be confirmed.