Image: Foremost Media.

Justin Rodbell has indicated he’ll transfer to Raceline KTM Thor in place of an injured Hayden Mellross for the upcoming Australian Supercross Championship, the American previously fielded by KSF Suzuki in the Pirelli MX Nationals.

Rodbell, who earned his ride with KSF Suzuki by winning a pre-season competition hosted by the outfit, is understood to have been on a motocross-only deal, however following his campaign in the MX Nationals, discussions and preparation for him compete in supercross aboard a Suzuki were being made.

The 19-year-old received the call up by the factory KTM team last month to pilot the 450 SX-F made vacant by Mellross, who suffered a season-ending knee injury at Moree’s penultimate stop of the outdoor series before being operated on after Coolum’s finals.

“Nothing’s official yet, but I’m obviously filling in for Hayden Mellross,” Rodbell explained to MotoOnline.com.au. “I’ve made the switch to KTM, and I’m loving the bike so far – I’ve spent about a week and a half on it, and everyone at Raceline is treating me well.

“I have another chance in 2019, and it was really cool what KSF did this year, but I’ve got to move onto bigger things. It was just a motocross-only thing at first – I raced motocross and it was brought up if I wanted to race supercross, so I planned on racing supercross for them.

“I had some supercross suspension done and started riding the Suzuki, but then Chris from Raceline called and said ‘hey man, would you be interested in riding a KTM for supercross?’ Hell yeah, I’d love to. It’s a great opportunity.”

The KSF Suzuki team has since signed Gradie Featherstone for supercross, who competed for them in last year’s championship.