Kawasaki Empire 2023
By Axel Martin
Empire Motorsport has started the new year with a renewed focus on direction. The team has decided not to compete in MX1 anymore and instead focus their efforts on MX2 with some new young riders.
Team owner Tyson Cherry hopes that by focusing on running in 250 categories, more effort can be put in where it’s needed rather than spreading it out as perhaps has happened in the past.
With a salary of a racer in the top 450 of around $80,000 just for logins, let alone bonuses, the Empire boss has decided to diversify into other classes like WMX and MX3 instead. The sport will regularly put his team on the podium and hopefully win a few championships.
We flocked to the Mornington Peninsula Motor Club with excitement running high, it’s not every day you get the chance to hang out with a racing team let alone ride their bikes. I have to say it’s impressive to walk up to a giant race car and see all the factory MX bikes on one side and the all-terrain team on the other.
We gathered around the team’s six bikes lined up for the morning press conference, keen to hear from the riders and mechanics.
Empire has reaffirmed its relationship with Kawasaki Australia, who are also hungry to achieve some good results and the importance of cooperation can be easily seen when Shu Yasui (CEO) and Rob Walker (National Sales and Marketing Manager) made the trip from Sydney for the event.
As we know, there is some pretty serious talent, boys and girls who will be giving their all for Empire in MX2 and MX3, while the team will also be joining the MXW for the first time.
Tyson has had a lot of organizing contracts but he has managed to create a great team of the best rising Aus ProMX riders.
In his second year with the team, Haruki Yokoyama is back. Japanese racer and full-time mechanic (wife) Huruka came to Australia a few years ago to train himself to be a better and stronger racer. Finishing sixth in last year’s championship proves that bigger things are to come.
Jai Constantinou, 22 years old, Victorian, has a burning passion for racing. Jai finished seventh overall in the 2022 ProMX Championship just behind Haruki, he hopes with even more competitive ’23 bikes he can step onto the podium. Unfortunately for Jai, however, as these pictures were taken he crashed at the Vic Champs held in Wonthaggi and broke his leg. Motocross is a brutal sport…
With the team deciding to stick with just the 250s this year, it opened up even more options for different classes, one of these being the MXW. Taylah McCutcheon will cut her work with some super tough competition, facing off against Charli Cannon, who smoked the field in ’22.
Taylah said she fell in love with the bike right away and felt confident going into the already challenging new season and beating Emma Milesevic at a pre-season event. It’s proof of how easy these new bikes are to ride and she’s a lot faster than last year.
Going from red to green is Campbell Williams, definitely a classy act. Campbell is currently 18 years old and is in his final year at MX3 before moving to MX2. If all goes well for Campbell, he has what it takes to win.
I don’t just follow the intro though, once they’re over I have to ride their racing bike….
