Image: Octopi Media.

Highly-rated Kiwi Brodie Connolly raced to a breakout sixth overall at the weekend’s Unadilla National, later admitting that ‘a result like today makes it all worth it’ following a difficult run of injuries.

The Quad Lock Honda recruit has spent much of the past 12 months sidelined by a series of injuries, limiting the double Australian MX2 champion’s opportunities to showcase his potential in the United States.

A convincing weekend began with qualifying 15th on the combined 250MX timesheets, before Connolly produced 8-5 moto scores – including a remarkable final corner pass on points-leader Levi Kitchen (Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki) in race two – to claim sixth overall.

“My day was good – it’s been a while since I’ve said that, so I’m stoked,” reflected Connolly. “I felt good in qualifying. I think I was 15th, which is still back a bit, but I felt good, so I knew it was going to be a good day.

“I’m just stoked. It’s been a long year of injuries, so to finally have a couple of good results makes all the hard work worth it. It gets tough when you’re at home watching and struggling, but a result like today makes it all worth it, and I’m just happy to feel like myself again.”

Connolly was initially slated to make his American debut in the Monster Energy Supercross 250SX East division, however, a practice incident resulted in a broken L1 vertebra and kept him sidelined until the RedBud National, where he finished 25th overall.

“It’s hard not to chase more, but at the end of the day you have to be a little bit realistic,” the 22-year-old continued. “I was happy with my riding today, so I don’t really care about the result, as long as I am happy with my riding. I want to chase that feeling the next two weekends, ride like that, and the results will speak for themselves.”

Connolly is on double-duty with the Quad Lock Honda organisation, having scored P6 in the SX2 class at the opening round of the 2026 World Supercross Championship (WSX) in Canada the weekend before Unadilla.