Wood Motorsport is a welcome addition to Boost Mobile AUSX in 2026, with the new-look KTM operation bringing a polished structure, strong rider line-up and clear ambition. Led by former Supercars racer Dale Wood alongside co-owner Eris Djemil, the team fields Hayden Mellross in SX1 and Tiger Wood in SX2. MotoOnline caught up with Wood in Townsville to discuss how the program came together and what commercial strengths he can potentially bring across from four-wheel motor-racing in this Industry interview feature.

Image: Foremost Media.

Dale, welcome to supercross. This came together pretty late, but you’ve been a fan of the sport for a long time. What’s it like going from Supercars into the two-wheel side and now actually being involved?

Yeah, definitely. I mean, it is last minute, but it isn’t something – it is also something that I’ve loved since I was a kid, probably more so than I ever did four wheels. And it took a bit of a nudge and a poke from a friend, Eris [Djemil], to sort of partner this up and just say, you know, let’s go and give it a crack. And once you get a couple of weeks into something, you generally find yourself too deep to get out. So it was like, ‘Righto, let’s do this,’ and let’s really try and do it in a good fashion and present it maybe arguably better than others might do in the sport. So from what I’ve learnt in four wheels, and then obviously the knowledge of people around myself and Eris and all that sort of thing, we’re able to put this together in a pretty good way and in a pretty quick way. So next weekend will be the first time in, I think, 19 years that I’m not going up to Bathurst to do the 1000, but I couldn’t be happier being here in Townsville ready for round one of supercross, though.

How did the team come together? Who helped make it happen, and what was the process behind it?

I think, as I say, it’s always something that’s sat there and simmered away at the surface. And myself and Eris, our two boys race go-karts, and it was just – I’d always sort of scrolled and searched on Instagram and seen some of the guys that were testing at the track and bits and pieces, and always had a real big sort of passion for it. I think Eris had something similar, and I’ve probably got that commercial background to go… the vision of being able to put something together which is glossy on the surface, and then obviously needing the right people to put it together mechanically and performance-wise underneath that. So it was really just a loose conversation that turned into a real thing. And as I say, as this has grown now over the past couple of months, it’s something that we have probably really taken a grip on and are really enjoying the process and wanting to build this into something bigger.

Image: Foremost Media.

You’ve got Hayden Mellross in SX1 and Tiger Wood in SX2. There’s plenty of talent there – how excited are you about what the team can achieve?

I honestly could not be happier with the two riders that we have representing SX1 and SX2. Hayden is such a proven, well-rounded product with what he is. I mean, he’s so… you know, comes along, almost complements our team with the way he turns up with Marty, his mechanic, and the knowledge that he has got that we can lean on. So Marty, you know, has been fantastic, just even for us to be able to say, ‘Hey, in this instance, what do we do?’ And bits and pieces. And then the talent that Tiger is, you know, seeing what he did in an amateur scene over in the US and bringing that here is, you know, something that we’re really massive about. We probably both, Eris and I, have got a real vision on giving young talent that opportunity and giving – I’ve been in bad teams, and I’ve been in good teams. So in my sport, I’ve seen what is good and what is bad in different places. And ideally for us, if we can put a great environment around a young talent to perform, then we would have ticked that box, and we’d be very happy with that.

Commercially, what have you learned from Supercars that you think can translate into supercross and help improve the way a team like this operates?

Look, motorsport sponsorship is a really funny thing. If you wanted to just go and do your basic marketing, any company can go and put their brand on a billboard and have millions of cars drive past it every day. So motorsport is a tool that you need to utilise to be able to return value back to companies that support you. There’s no point just putting a sticker on a bike or a rider’s helmet, thinking you’ve done your job and you’re going to return tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of value, because that is not the case. You have to activate it. You have to make all of your partners feel like they’re part of the journey and really have staff and customer engagement around the product that you’re utilising. So for me, that’s what I learnt in four-wheel sport, and that’s what I want to bring into two-wheel sport.

Image: Foremost Media.

The presentation is very clean, the truck looks good, and the bikes look fantastic. Best of luck for the season.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you.