Suzuki’s brand new 250 four-stroke weapon faces its world supercross debut on Centre Court of Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne this Saturday night, for round 6 of the Australian Supercross Masters. (October 4)

The RM-Z250 will fire upon its rivals in the former 125cc class of Supercross Masters – Australia’s richest motorcycle series which carries with it the Australian title.

Suzuki Australia’s factory AXO Motul team has won the race to put one of the radical four-strokes into arena competition; its only previous racing appearance has been an outdoor motocross event in Suzuki’s homeland of Japan.

And the team has achieved the honour in spades… Suzuki will field two RM-Z machines on Saturday night in the hands of one of the Pro-Lite front-runners Mitchell Hoad and Queensland Suzuki support rider Jono Porter.

Supercross Masters Pro-Lite division has proved ultra-competitive this season despite the domination enjoyed by CDR Yamaha’s Troy Carroll.

And one of the keys to Carroll’s awesome string of unbeaten performances has been his YZF 250 Yamaha equipment – the first of the new-breed of four-strokes which all motorcycle manufacturers believe is the future of the sport.

Suzuki’s Aussie team manager Jay Foreman has called on his American connections to launch the new thumper rocketship.

“I have exchanged plenty of information with US Suzuki’s Roger de Coster… he will set loose his four-strokes at the US Supercross Open in Las Vegas on October 11", says Foreman. “So we have beaten him by one week to get the RM-Z to the start gate.”

Toppling Carroll and the YZF 250 from their perch seems a tall order for the Suzuki boys… but the time is ripe.  

The Honda boys will still be on two-stroke machinery but Honda has just received their first pre-production CRF250R which they will present at the event but the new machine will not be raced just yet.

Mitchell Hoad lost out to Carroll in the most recent Supercross Masters round in Adelaide (September 6) only after a Steward’s hearing adjudicated on a highly-interesting passing move.

Porter – back from injury – advanced all the way to the Final in Adelaide and should prove even harder on the throttle this Saturday night.

Suzuki fans will welcome a full compliment of yellow bikes in the pits; Pro-Open contender Danny Ham returns also after eight weeks out of the saddle through a serious thumb injury.

Ham has lost sight of the Supercross Masters title but seeks the kudos – and prize money rewards -- of a late-season upset.

His last competitive outing was the Yamaha Nationals in Hobart in August when he totally dusted a full-strength field which included the likes of Cameron Taylor, Troy Dorron and runaway championship points-leader -- Motorex KTM’s Jay Marmont.

Melbourne has always hosted one of the major events on the Australian dirt bike calendar – on the most compact of venues.

Centre Court at Melbourne Park is the home to the Australia Open Tennis – one of the world’s four Grand Slam events. Saturday night will see the 16th annual staging of the two-wheel spectacle which combines fierce race competition with zany Freestyle Motocross… and an air of show business.

Tickets for the Australian Supercross Championships are available by phoning 132 849.