Perfect conditions and a well presented, hard pack track greeted Jed Beaton at Maitland as round four of the 2024 Penrite ProMX Championship got under on Saturday and in a slightly different format. The event was run over two days and three races to complete the round giving riders the chance to lose and gain ground in the championship hunt.
That was the case in every class, except for the MX1 division, where Jed Beaton and Kyle Webster came into the round separated by one point, and left, still separated by one point. Over the course of the weekend, Beaton used ultra consistent moto scores of 2-2-2 to amass 66 points, while Webster finished with 5-1-1 to also total 66 points, but he gets the round win thanks to the higher finish in moto 3.
Beaton was again on the pace in qualifying, taking pole position and the first choice of the start gate across the three motos. Each race had a similar vibe to it, with Beaton charging his way forward to hit the lead in the early laps, then to slip back a spot at the mid-way point each race before battling all the way to the finish.
His consistency across the series so far sees him in second place in the championship at the halfway stage, but he knows its time to get some race wins on the board and make things happen in the final rounds.
“The whole weekend I just felt a bit off,” Beaton starts. Nothing bad and certainly not taking anything away from Kyle or Nathan who are both riding well, but I just didn’t gel with the track as well as I would have liked. I struggled here last year, and this year was certainly a big improvement, but I feel I could have raced better and been able to grab a couple of moto wins this weekend.
“The championship is tight, and we still have four rounds to go, so its time to step up and get some race wins and put myself in the best possible position to win the championship. The next two tracks we race are ones that I like and have done well at in the past, so I will bring lots of focus and energy to them and see if we can get on a bit of a roll in the back half of the year,” Beaton ends.
