Michael Byrne
Team AMSOIL/Chaparral/Honda

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For Australian expat Michael Byrne, the 2002 season was an up and down year. He had a packed schedule, riding the AMA 125 Eastern Region Supercross series, 250 Supercross races that didn't have a 125 Eastern Region support event, and the outdoor 125 National series.

"My year was both very good and very bad," Byrne says. "Most of my best finishes were on the CR250R. I got a fourth at the first Supercross round at Anaheim, and then I won the heat race at the third round. Then I got third on the first night of the THQ U.S. Open Supercross at the end of the year. I just had that one crash at Indianapolis that put a damper on my whole season."

Yes, that crash. Byrne came off hard at the first 125 Eastern Region round, and collapsed both lungs, broke three ribs, a vertebra in his back and his ankle. "So I was a bit of a mess for a while," he says. "It took two or three surgeries to get everything healed. It took me a long time to build up my strength and get fully healthy again. It wasn't until the last four outdoor rounds that I started to ride a lot better and got some solid top-10 finishes."

The tough young man from Queensland has put his troubled year behind him, though, and has his sights firmly set on the 2003 season. For his second year with the Amsoil/Chaparral/Factory Connection/Honda team, he'll be riding the AMA 125 Eastern Region Supercross series, select 250 Supercross events and the 125 outdoor Nationals, on board a Honda CR125R and CR250R.

Some riders might find it tough to switch back and forth between bikes of different displacement, but that's not a problem for Burner, as he's known. "I think I'm pretty lucky in that I can adapt really well to riding different bikes," he says. "It's always something I've been good at. I'm glad that Honda has given me an opportunity to ride the 250.

"I definitely think the 250 Supercross class is the tougher class, there's no doubt about that. But I think the depth of talent is a little deeper in the 125 class. Outdoors or indoors, if you get a bad start or something happens you can drop back and be caught in a battle for 15th or 20th place in the 125 class."

But Burner is looking for far better results than just mid-pack finishes in 2003. In fact, he plans on making up for his shortened 2002 season. He served notice at the last major U.S. Supercross event in 2002, the THQ U.S. Open Supercross, where he landed on the podium with a solid third-place finish.

"I've been training harder than last year," he says. "I thought I was ready last year, but unfortunately I got hurt. So this year I want to be fitter, I want to be stronger, and I want to win the 125 East Coast title, which is what Honda hired me to do. So I want to prove to them that I can win the championship for them, stay healthy and get some good results."