Australian Supercross Champion Gavin Faith has confirmed he will return to Australia to defend his Lites title with the Carlton Dry Honda Racing team.
Faith dominated the series in 2012 winning three of the four rounds, to take the title ahead of Ryan Marmont.
The American, who finished fifth in the AMA Supercross East Coast Championship this year, will spend the next month at the Millsaps Training Facility preparing for his return to Australia in early September.
“I am really looking forward to coming back to Australia,” Faith said. “I love the country and I am excited that the Australian Supercross Championship is growing.
“This will be my third time in Australia competing in Supercross and this year I return as the defending champion. I had a good season in the US finishing fifth in the East Coast Championship so I think I will be returning even better prepared this year.
“I looked up Darwin on the internet and it looks like an exciting place to visit. I really hope I get to see a bit of the region while we are there,” Faith added.
The team, which has had misfortune with riders Ben Townley, Ford Dale and Josh Cachia succumbing to injury, remain positive as they head into the second half of the MX Nationals and prepare for the forthcoming Australian Supercross Championship.
MX1 pilot Gareth Swanepoel will be joined by exciting young rider Jackson Richardson for the remainder of the MX Nationals events.
Richardson has returned to Australia during a break in his US program and will contest MX2 and the Australian Supercross Lites class onboard a Honda CRF250.
The Australian, who finished ninth in the Toronto round of the AMA Supercross Championship, has not contested an Australian motocross event since 2011.
“I haven’t raced motocross in Australia since 2011 so I am looking forward to getting out there and showing what I can do,” Richardson said.
“The US has been an amazing experience, I have learnt a lot competing in both the AMA Supercross and AMA Pro Motocross.
“This opportunity came up at the right time,” Richardson continued. “I had finished my program of events and was due to come home for a break.”
Carlton Dry Honda Racing Team Manager Chris Woods said Richardson would race both motocross and supercross.
“We were aware Jackson was coming home in a break during his US schedule and the Lites position had become available due to Josh succumbing to a wrist injury.
“We wanted to get someone on the bike who we could run in both motocross and supercross so the timing was perfect.
“I’m looking forward to working with Jackson. I’ve been keeping an eye on his results over the last few years and I think he has the speed to run up the front,” Woods added.
Since the beginning of 2012 the Carlton Dry Honda Racing team has been on the podium at 15 of the 20 events contested.
The team dominated the 250cc class in 2012, winning both the Australian Motocross and Australian Supercross championships.
Between them, Ford Dale and Gavin Faith adorned the Lites podium at 11 out of 14 events (six wins, one second and four thirds). The team finished third overall in the MX1 Championship and amassed 15 top three race finishes.
While Josh Cachia and Ford Dale are both sidelined, recovering from re onstructive surgery Peter Boyle took the team to podium finishes at the Hattah Desert Race and Australian Four Day Enduro and Ben Townley won the 160km Tony Rees Honda Tarawera 100 cross-country race.
