The 2026 season has so far proven to be a big year for Monster Energy CDR Yamaha’s Aaron Tanti, who has risen back to race-winning form through the latter stages of the Australian outdoor series on his way to second in the final MX1 standings. That led to a call to represent Team Australia at the Monster Energy Motocross of Nations (MXoN) in France next month, while also preparing for supercross in between. Learn more about his upcoming plans in this Conversation feature.

Image: Foremost Media.

So, Aaron, the MXoN call-up is obviously a big deal, gearing up to represent Team Australia in France. How did it all come together on your side?

It was a bit of a weird one, honestly. Motorcycling Australia (MA) put out an expression of interest, I guess you’d call it, and at the beginning I didn’t apply… it wasn’t even really on my radar, thinking that Jed [Beaton] and Kyle [Webster] would be the ones to go. When that application first came out, I wasn’t on their pace yet, but then as the season went on – and as most people know, Kyle was carrying an injury from America – but still, it didn’t seem to affect him too much, as he was still going really fast. Then the last two or three rounds came around, [and] we were all giving it to each other, and it wasn’t until after Queensland Moto Park (QMP) that I got the overall and clinched second in the MX1 championship that they were like, ‘Do you want to do Nations?’ and I was like, ‘I guess so!’ [laughs]. In the end, it was mostly performance-based, but I am so stoked on the opportunity.

There are so many riders who get thrown into the ring that it’s hard to keep track of – did you feel like the selection was progressively coming your way or was it literally QMP that did it?

Towards the last three rounds outdoors, it became a question that was in the air, because at that stage we were pushing for moto wins, and then I was continually getting asked about it. It was almost like other people wanted me to do it more than I did at that point, because the AUSX season is really important to me. But when it turned out that Townsville wasn’t going to count towards the championship, it worked out, and I was also really enjoying motocross at the end there as well.

We see a variety of reactions from teams around the world on how they approach Nations – how did Craig Dack and CDR react? I feel like he is pretty passionate about the event.

Yeah, definitely. You know, for Jed, it was always on the cards all year, and both Dacka and Yamaha were never going to hold him back from doing that, even if supercross kind of clashed with it. For me, it was a bit of a different story because I am a pretty strong supercross rider for the team, so if Townsville was a points-scoring round that clashed with Nations, it’d be a hard choice for me. I’m contracted to race motocross and supercross in Australia, but with how it’s all worked out, Dacka is stoked. The whole team is going over to France – we’ll take our bikes and mechanics, it’ll just be our whole team there – and as we saw on social media, Craig put up that post about it having been 40 years since he first did the event, and now both his riders are doing it, so we’re all pretty excited.

Image: Foremost Media.

Running numbers 1, 2, 3 in France must be special as well. How do you feel about that – nervous or excited?

Oh, man – they definitely look sick on the bikes [laughs]! But yeah, as everyone knows, Jett and Hunter [Lawrence] are our strongest Australian riders, and they’ve played a massive role in why the team has won the last two years and P2 the year before that. So, yeah, a little nerve-wracking, but honestly, they’re having a break, and me, Jed, and [Alex] Larwood are the next best Australian riders, which is kind of cool to see. Jed and I went 1-2 in MX1, while Larwood won MX2, and that’s three riders who live in Australia and race our series here, which is kind of cool. I mean, you still see things online where people are bagging or whatever, but we’re in a very different spot. Jett and Hunter are the best in the world, and we’re the best domestically in our country, so it’ll be cool to see our level stack up against some of the world’s best.

Switching gears to talk supercross and the schedule, what has changed for you with the Nations call-up? Were you intending to have a break before getting into AUSX preparation?

Initially, I was going to have two to three weeks off after motocross, genuinely having a full week off training, and then slowly get back into it while also getting the supercross track ready and stuff like that. Once I found out I was selected for MXoN, though, the motos are longer than what we do here, so I really needed to keep on going and actually up my motos at the same time. The way that I am structured now, I only ride three days per week as it is, so I currently do two days of motocross and one day of supercross – I’ve got two different bikes up here with me with different set-ups. The one day of supercross is mainly so I start getting my eye in, so once I do get back from France, I can just rip in, as I’ll have three weeks until the first point-scoring AUSX race.

And all things considered, you’re happy with that timeframe? Not like there is much you can do about it, but it’s enough prep for you to feel ready for supercross?

Yeah, 100 percent. You know, it’s… I’ve done supercross for many years now, it comes quite naturally to me, and I’ve probably only done three days, to be honest, since QMP. I jump on the track and I’m already comfortable and can do everything, it’s mainly just getting back up to speed and dialling in the fitness. It’s more intense, meaning your heart rate is a little higher, even though we do 35-minute motos in motocross, you go do 10 minutes on a supercross track and feel like you’re gassed, so that’s always fun to come back to at the start [laughs].

Image: Foremost Media.

When we talk about the late-year schedule and events, we see AUSX obviously, and Nations is slotted in there, but so is the MXGP of Australia in Darwin. Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen an absence of some of our top riders, including yourself – why is that?

Honestly, it’s kind of in a weird spot for us. Like, the team right now is under the pump – they’ve had to build MXoN bikes, but then they’ve also had to build our supercross bikes because they’ll also get shipped over to New Zealand around the time we go to France, and I’m assuming that’d be another set of bikes that they’d need to have built if we also wanted to do the MXGP. That event was never really pushed on us either – if Team Australia wanted us to do it, then it’s kind of up to MA to say, ‘Hey, we want you guys to do this.’ I mean, it would’ve been cool to do, definitely, I just feel like the timeframe, and then how Nations came up on me, it would’ve been a bit too quick of a turnaround and something I wasn’t ready for.

Looking at the backside of the calendar, I feel like it’s easy to let the GP fall by the wayside after prioritising both the Nations and then AUSX preparations…

Yeah, exactly, because the GP is only a couple of weekends away. It’s hard – I’ve also got to get in some testing for supercross – I need to go down to Victoria and be with the team, probably next week. I’ve never said that I am against racing the MXGP, but honestly, even if I wasn’t doing Nations, I would be in full-blown supercross mode, you know? That would’ve been more important to be ready for Townsville, so the timing is the hardest part about it. If it was two or three weeks after we finished motocross, then yeah, that’s alright, but even after motocross finishes, it becomes really hard to train for motocross, because a lot of the riders switch over to supercross, and it’s hard to find decent tracks to train on as well, so there is that, too. Even right now, I’m doing motos by myself and not part of the training group that I ride with, because they’re all on supercross, so you lose that element of training as well.

Yeah, it makes sense. So really, at the end of the day, there just isn’t a lot of interest because other things are taking your time?

It’s a hard one, because on one hand, like it is cool, but at the same time, it also costs money to go do, right? It’s not a point-scoring race for us really, it costs money to do it, and it’s not like it’s close to anything – it’s up in Darwin. I find that it’s just where it falls in the year that makes it hard for any of us to do it, but in my opinion, I think it’s really good for the young riders to go and do it, especially the ones who have aspirations to go race in Europe. For me, I’m not going to go race in MXGP [laughs]… I’m 30 now, so I don’t think I’ll have many more overseas races unless it is something like the Nations, or those one-off types of things.

For sure, thanks for shedding some insight on that one. But anyway, good luck over in France, mate – I’m sure it’ll be an epic experience for you boys and all who go over to be part of it.

Yeah, thanks mate! For sure it’s a little nerve-wracking, but I’m looking forward to it, honestly. It looks like one of the best places to race MXoN – the crowd looks insane, so we’re just stoked to go over and give it our best shot.