Horsham to host 2018 world junior MX title

The Horsham Motorcycle Club will host the 2018 Junior Motocross World Championship, in a rare foray out of Europe for the popular event.

“It’s the biggest junior motocross event that will ever be held in Australia, and we’re extremely excited to host it,” said Horsham Motorcycle Club President Kenny Watts. “It was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment call that I made at the 2013 Australian Junior Motocross Championship presentation night, in which I suggested it (the FIM World Junior Motocross Championships) was something we should put in for.

“The club decided to contact Motorcycling Australia and we got the ball rolling from there.”

The championship will be held over three days across the 65cc, 85cc and 125cc divisions, with practice on Friday, qualifying on Saturday, and racing on Sunday. The exact dates are still to be announced by the FIM, although the event traditionally takes places in the second half of the year.

The junior motocross world title has been going since 2004, and previous winners include current AMA front runners Ken Roczen, Eli Tomac, as well as two Australians — Jay Wilson in 2009 (85cc) and Jett Lawrence in 2014 (65cc).

“Horsham is already an established club with fairly impressive infrastructure, so a lot of the things we will require for the event are already in place,” Watts said. “Since 2012 when we built this track, we’ve run 14 Australian national titles. We’ve done numerous rounds of the MX Nationals, we’ve run two Australian Women’s Motocross Championships there, plus sidecars and quad bikes; we just love running big events.

“We’ll do the right thing and we’ll go overseas and check out how other clubs are doing it in the meantime. We’ll be looking to emulate the good things and improve on the things that we think need to be improved on.”

MA CEO Dale Gilson said hosting an event such as the FIM World Junior Motocross Championship would be a massive boost to motorcycling in Australia.

“This is a magnificent result for the Horsham Motorcycling Club to be given the chance to host the FIM World Junior Motocross Championship, and I congratulate everyone involved with the process,” Gilson said. “Landing an international event of this magnitude is not only fantastic for the Horsham community and for Victoria, but also for motorcycling in Australia overall.

“MA is always committed to showcasing events like the FIM World Junior Motocross Championship in Australia, and we will work together with the club and Motorcycling Victoria to deliver a truly wonderful event.”

Australia last hosted world motocross racing in Broadford (Vic) in 2001.

Image: L-R Horsham Rural City Council Mayor Mark Radford, Minister for Sport, Tourism and Major Events Hon. John Eren, Motorcycling Victoria CEO Wayne Holdsworth and MA President Braxton Laine.