Matt Moss On His Australian Nationals Win

National Pump Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team’s Matt Moss won the opening round of the 2016 Motul MX (Australian) Nationals over the weekend in Horsham. Moss beat out some high-profile names like Brett Metcalfe, Dean Ferris, Dan Reardon and Todd Waters for the opening round win. Kayne Taylor caught up with Moss after his victory.

Kayne Taylor: Extremely solid day for you today leaving round one with the red plate. Talk about the beginning of the day a bit and how you felt entering the season with a new bike, new team.
Matt Moss: Yeah the day started off great, I was just happy. My wife actually told me that I looked happy, and I said you know what, I am. With the National Pump Monster Energy Kawasaki team obviously being a new team for me, I guess new goals came with that and my bike was just—I felt like even after the first lap off practice that I felt like I could win the day.

And the motos as well: you went 3-1 for the overall.
That’s right. The first race is always a bit jittery, and I rode a little bit tight, little bit nervous and I actually had arm pump almost the entire moto. So I knew when those guys in front weren’t pulling away from me whilst I had arm pump, I knew that it was going to be a good second moto. Then the second moto, I got off to a pretty decent start, I think I was around fifth, then made some passes straight away and got in behind my teammate (Kade Mosig), and he had completely different liners to me, which was good. So whilst behind him, I worked out which (lines) were working for me, got around him and just managed the lead until the chequers.

It’s just a great day for the team and everyone who stuck behind me after a horrid 2015, so I’m extremely grateful and stoked to pay them back.

Obviously a difficult round here last year (DNF-DNS), what was the goal this weekend?
Well, I could see the win happening after the first moto, but I didn’t come to Horsham to win. I wanted to just get my points this weekend, because as everyone says, you cant win the championship at the first round, but you can certainly lose it.

A lot of talk surrounded the return of Todd Waters and Dean Ferris, along with a cameo appearance from Brett Metcalfe. Do you feel people overlooked you coming in?
Oh, definitely. I knew what was going on, and I knew everyone was going to pick the other guys. You know, it’s just new faces thinking that they’re going to come back to Australia and dominate us. However, I have beat them before and there’s no reason that I can’t beat them again. You know, I’m always going to have my critics—I seem to have more than my fair share, so it’s enjoyable to shut them up. [Laughs]

And Jake Moss (Matt’s twin brother) finished third in the MX2 class. Is it a good feeling to have him back?
Yeah, it’s great. Awesome to have Jake back. I spoke to him at the start of the year and said that it was the best decision for him to go back to the Lites Class (250), and Horsham just proved that. It’s awesome to have him not actually racing against me, and that we’re now able to work together. I think the National Pump Monster Energy Kawasaki team are pretty stoked to have two potential championship winners this year.

You said on the podium that you spoke to Troy Carroll (team manager) before the season when you didn’t have a ride and told him that you were going after championships this year, what was his response?
Yeah, well I approached TC in Coolum (2015 final round), because there was no hiding it, I had plans to ride for another team and that was really all sewn up before I got shafted at the last minute. So I walked straight to TC in Coolum knowing he had a great infrastructure, but I had assumed that he already had his riders but he didn’t. So I told him, ‘Hey, I’m not done, I’m going to win next year, do you want to give me a shot?’ and he said no worries.

TC being a past champion, he knows that championships aren’t bought; you have to earn it. So he knows I can do it, we just have to have the right people in our corner and I think that’s what we’ve got this year.

Red plates going to look good.
It’s going to look really good. [Laughs] I was walking through the Kawasaki showroom and they had Jay Marmont’s championship bike on display with the red number one plate, and I said how good is my bike going to look with a red number one plate, so that’s the goal.