It only took four rounds for CDR Yamaha Monster Energy Team racer, Jed Beaton, to climb on the podium at the Australian Supercross Championship.
Beaton has shown significant improvement since his return to supercross racing and each round has been a progression in terms of speed and results and just four rounds back into the tight confines of a supercross track, Beaton finished third in an action-packed evening of racing. Ran alongside the Adelaide Supercar race, the format coined the Adelaida Sprint, featuring four, short, sharp races that provided some aggressive and chaotic action that wasn’t for the faint hearted.
He finished with 5-2-7-3 results to land in third place and a great reward for the countless amount of practice laps and the hard work in getting up to speed over the past eight weeks.
“There was a lot going on out there over those four races and I wasn’t even thinking about the points in any race, just trying to keep it on two wheels and get the best result possible,” Beaton said.
“Starts were so important but mine were so bad that it actually worked in my favour as I was able to see what was unfolding, keep away from the trouble and pick my way through the traffic quickly. But it’s not a plan that I would like to use any time as a good start always makes things easier.
“But really happy to be up on the podium and pumped to get this one for the CDR Yamaha team as we have been working away behind the scenes. It’s a shame we have one round to go, as I’m just getting warmed up,” Beaton smiles.
It was a mixed night for Matt Moss who showed good speed through the practice and qualifying sessions only to have it unravel in the chaos of the four sprint finals. Moss finished in tenth place for the round with 4-DNF-5-5 finishes.
The DNF (Did Not Finish) proved costly as another good finish would have him right on podium contention, but he fell heavily in the opening lap argy-bargy and his bike was too damaged to continue. To his credit, he was able to rebound strongly in the final two races, but the damage was done for the night.
“Today was probably as good as I have felt at a race so far this year,” Moss said. “I posted some good laps in qualifying and thought with a few good starts, I could challenge for some race wins tonight, but it wasn’t to be.
“The first few laps of every race had riders going everywhere and unfortunately, I was caught up in it in race two and did some damage to my bike. The guys worked furiously between the races to get it sorted but they did an awesome job, and we were able to finish the night pretty well.
“I’m really looking forward to Melbourne in a couple of weeks’ time. It’s always been an awesome event and with the international riders coming and a big crowd in the stadium, its going to be unreal.”