Cooper & Moss confirmed for Team Motul Pirelli Suzuki
Saturday 16 February: Focus is on the premier MX1 category with the all new RM-Z450.
Cody Cooper: Photo - Keith Muir Matt Moss: Photo - Shayne Rice
Team Motul Pirelli Suzuki has announced that Cody Cooper and Matt
Moss will make up the team’s official rider line-up in the 2013 MX
Nationals, Australian Motocross Championship, focusing on the premier
MX1 category with the all new RM-Z450.
Cooper, fresh from winning
last weekend’s opening round of the New Zealand Motocross Championship,
will return for his fourth consecutive season with Suzuki’s factory race
team in Australia aboard the all new 2013 model RM-Z450.
After
finishing third in last year’s MX Nationals series, the likeable
29-year-old Kiwi is confident that he can progress into a championship
contender when it commences at Raymond Terrace, New South Wales, in
April.
"I’m really happy to be back with Motul Pirelli Suzuki and
riding the RM-Z450,” Cooper commented. "I’ve been with Jay Foreman and
the team since I returned from the US in 2010, so it’s definitely good
to enter the season with familiar surroundings and I hope to really
challenge for the MX1 title in 2013.”
Moss will be reunited with
Motul Pirelli Suzuki for a full season in 2013, stepping up to the
premier MX1 category alongside Cooper on the RM-Z450. At 24, Moss
already has five national Lites titles to his name – three of those
coming with Suzuki in 2008 and 2009.
After spending much of last
season in the United States, Moss returned home to join Motul Pirelli
Suzuki for supercross, however injury at the opening round sidelined him
for the series remainder. Now recovered and in training for the
upcoming outdoor season, he’s hopeful that this year will mark a great
opportunity to win further titles with Suzuki.
"I’m excited to be
back with Suzuki and I really want to focus on a successful season
ahead,” Moss explained. "I feel like I will be ready for the opening
round and I am looking forward to the challenges ahead in the MX1 class.
The RM-Z450 has unbelievable power and it ultimately feels really good –
so smooth and consistent.
"I think I could have stepped up to MX1
a year or two earlier, but I really wanted to try and race in America,
so that’s why I had stayed on a Lites bike. For this year I will step up
full time and I have learnt a lot winning titles on the RM-Z250 in the
past with Jay and the team. Now it’s up to me to carry that form over to
the 450.”
Team manager Jay Foreman is excited at the prospect of
having Cooper and Moss on board for the MX Nationals, the Motul Pirelli
Suzuki team opting to focus on the MX1 category with Suzuki’s revised
2013 model RM-Z450 this year.
"It’s shaping up to be a great team
effort this season,” Foreman said. "We were able to finish second and
third in the series last year, so this year it will be a great challenge
to go one better with Cody and Matt. Cody is in great shape, he’s
really determined and has been really impressive during the pre-season.
"Matt
is Matt – you always know he will have the speed to be in there
battling for the championship. We’re excited to have him back, he has
had surgery during the
off-season and has had his bike for a couple
of weeks now. The 2013 RM-Z450 is a real improvement, making it very
straightforward for us to develop as we’re starting with such a good
package in production trim.”
Suzuki Australia’s General Manager,
Motorcycles Perry Morison welcomed the combination of Cooper and Moss to
the Motul Pirelli Suzuki team for the new year, continuing the brand’s
relationship with Foreman for the 18th season since it was first
established in 1996. Morison is also pleased to continue Suzuki’s
relationship with Link International, confirming Motul and Pirelli as
the team’s title sponsors.
"This year will be an exciting one for
Motul Pirelli Suzuki and we look forward to having both Cody and Matt on
board the RM-Z450,” Morison stated. "Jay Foreman does a tremendous job
running our factory race program and it is great to welcome Motul and
Pirelli, along with all of our team partners, for season 2013.”
The
opening round of the MX Nationals, Australian Motocross Championship,
will take place at Raymond Terrace in New South Wales on Sunday, 14
April 2013.