The Penrite ProMX Championship presented by AMX Superstores (ProMX) will drop the gates on season 2024 this weekend in the Victorian seaside town of Wonthaggi, where Australia’s best motocross racers will do battle in a bid to open their season on the top step of the podium.

Featuring the Thor MX1 Championship alongside the Pirelli MX2 Championship, MAXXIS MX3 Championship and EZILIFT MXW Championship, the Bass Coast-based venue will welcome 165 competitors at the first of eight rounds this Sunday, March 17. And the action on track is expected to be scintillating across the board.

Download the official event program for Wonthaggi here.

Thor MX1
With his sights firmly set on challenging for a record fifth Thor MX1 Championship, defending champion Dean Ferris has reunited with CDR Yamaha Monster Energy in 2024 –  the very team in which he swept to three-straight titles between 2016-2018. He won a fourth crown on an independently operated YZ450F last year, now back within the factory CDR fold.

Alongside him will be reigning number two Jed Beaton, the Gippsland local making for an all-new roster at CDR Yamaha Monster Energy and eager to establish himself as the team’s alpha from the outset. Also in a new squad for 2024, GASGAS Racing Team has drafted in 2015 champion Kirk Gibbs to pilot its all-new MC 450F after he finished third in points last season.

In place of Gibbs at the KTM Racing Team is Nathan Crawford, who was runner-up in MX2 last year and makes the transition into the 450 class this time around. Over at the Raceline Husqvarna Racing Team, another previous title winner – 2020 – in Todd Waters returns once again as team owner/rider.

Honda Racing enters the new year with a dynamic new rider line-up of multiple MX2 champion Wilson Todd at Terrafirma Honda Racing, who has stepped up for 2024 to partner Boost Mobile Honda Racing mainstay Kyle Webster – both riders capable of winning motos on any given weekend and, potentially, the title in what would form a pivotal changing of the guard.

Empire Kawasaki is another to come out charging with a refreshed rider line-up after securing Luke Clout to steer the new KX450, the 2021 championship winner motivated to put himself back on top and the rejuvenated Team Green firmly back on the national motocross map once and for all.

With over 40 riders entered including a long list of ever-determined privateers behind the starting gates among the manufacturer-backed might, the Thor MX1 Championship is shaping up to be one of the most competitive on record.

Pirelli MX2
With reigning champion Todd vacating the class, who will step up to take control of the Pirelli MX2 Championship is anyone’s guess entering season 2024. With Honda Racing capturing the past three titles between Webster and Todd, it will now be up to returning Kiwi Brodie Connolly, as well as incoming recruits Noah Ferguson and Alex Larwood, to battle for the title if it is to remain in the red corner.

Leading the blue charge will be Yamalube Yamaha Racing’s three-rider roster of Jayce Cosford, Ryder Kingsford and Kaleb Barham, while over at KTM Racing Team it is now 16-year-old Kayden Minear who takes on a leading role, and GASGAS Racing Team also has a teenage newcomer in last year’s MX3 champion Byron Dennis – also just 16 – at the helm.

There’s a lot of interest in the Raceline Husqvarna Racing Team after signing Rhys Budd to join Jack Mather in what will mark his transition into the pro class of 250cc racing. Over at Empire Kawasaki, the focus will be on Reid Taylor following a standout number of seasons competing as a privateer and now securing himself an elusive position within a professional team.

Like the MX1 ranks, there is a full gate of factory and privateer contenders looking to showcase their capabilities, with a new champion waiting in line to lift the crown at season’s end.

MAXXIS MX3
Packed with Australia’s finest young motocross talent, the MAXXIS MX3 division has long been a breeding ground of champions, and 2024 is no different. Like Minear directly before him, last year’s winner Dennis has moved on with a factory deal in the big leagues and there is a title on the line right here once again.

As a result, there will be no less than 60 racers aiming for a position on the grid come Sunday morning when qualifying takes place, and only 40 will go on to make the cut. 

Official support from the manufacturers is evident, too, as WBR Yamaha Bulk Nutrients Racing arrives with a four-rider line-up of Kobe Drew, Kayd Kingsford, Seth Burchell and Koby Hantis, while Honda Racing has new signing Jake Cannon on the fast-track to success. 

KTM Racing Team is throwing its support behind Jet Alsop in an enhanced MX3 program, as is the GASGAS Racing Team with Ky Woods. Alongside them and next in line will be KTM Junior Racing Team’s Jackson Fuller, as well as Husqvarna Junior Racing Team riders Jack Deveson and Peter Wolfe. 

Whether it will be one of those kids who deliver or another emerging youngster that steps up to the plate when the chequered flag is waved can’t be predicted, but what you can count on is an impressive field of our next generation being engaged in battle at all eight rounds in 2024.

EZILIFT MXW
Australia is home to some of the most skilled women motocross racers on the planet and for the new year, there has been a series of changes among the official teams that will be sure to be in the spotlight come Sunday. 

The biggest headline of all is defending two-time champion Charli Cannon’s defection from Yamaha to Honda Racing during the off-season, and it will yet again be the exceptional 18-year-old Queenslander who is tipped to set the benchmark in 2024.

Cannon is targeting a third-successive EZILIFT MXW Championship, this time equipped with the CRF250R, and bringing momentum into ProMX after leading Team Australia to a dominant win in the inaugural FIM Oceania Women’s Motocross Cup at New Zealand’s Woodville Grand Prix in January. 

There’s an increasing list of challengers, however, as a total of 24 flying females have signed up for their shot at success in the ProMX Championship. Combined with the Thor MX1, Pirelli MX2 and MAXXIS MX3 categories, fans will be out in force trackside to take in the action as it happens.

Get your tickets to the ProMX opener at Wonthaggi here!