Round six of the Penrite ProMX Championship marked a convincing day of racing for Monster Energy CDR Yamaha’s Jed Beaton, who notched a perfect 1-1 scorecard to earn the overall round victory and extend his MX1 series points lead. In MX2, Brodie Connolly also posted the perfect day, with both riders speaking to MotoOnline after the races for this Debrief interview.

MX1

Image: Foremost Media.

Overall winner today and extending his MX1 points lead is the number 14 of Jed Beaton. You were great across all conditions here at Canberra. What was the difference? You looked like a different Jed Beaton out there today.

Yeah, I came here just really wanting to win, to be honest. Throughout the week, we worked on a few things, and then, yeah, I felt good this morning. First laps on the track felt good – it’s always a nice feeling when that happens, as it’s not always like that. So, felt good. And then obviously was fastest in practice, fastest in qualifying, and two moto wins. So, I can’t complain about that. It was a good day. Starts weren’t there, but I just wanted to make it happen, you know, and came through the pack, and I seemed to be in first or second after the first or second lap, both motos.

It almost looked like there was a little bit more urgency – both motos seemed like that as well. Hearing Craig Dack on the broadcast, he mentioned that throughout the week after Warwick, something clicked. Was that self-reflection?

That was honestly searching for something that I felt like I needed to bring out. I did a lot of thinking about, say, back in the days of Europe, and how I wanted to just do well. And I tried to bring that back out for this weekend. Obviously, from here on out, it seems like it’s working, and we’ll just keep it going. The goal is the championship. So we’re, yeah, like you said before, we’ve extended the points lead. There are two rounds to go, and I like both of the last tracks. So I’m looking forward to it.

Extending the lead to 29 points, anything can happen in motocross, and we know that. But you have that gap now that something can happen, and you’re still okay. Is there a sense of confidence in that? You want to win regardless, I know. But subconsciously, there’s got to be something we’re you’re happy with that…

At the end of the day, my goal is to just go and win races again. I haven’t gone 1-1 for a long time. I think it was well overdue, and obviously, I’ve always struggled in the first moto, but like I said, from the first laps of today, I felt really good and didn’t get any arm pump at all in the first race. I felt like I gelled quite well with this track. I’ve been here one time on a 65 when the Junior Nationals were here back in the day, but I think the track went the complete opposite direction. But yeah, just enjoyed it. Honestly, had a fun day. Felt like I rode like myself and to my full potential, so definitely can go away from here, happy with that.

Still no confirmation regarding MXoN. Still nothing?

No, I haven’t heard anything. I’m sure they’ll have to figure it out this week, I guess. For me today, I just wanted to win, and it’s good for my chances of going. It’s a good thing for the championship, and it’s a good thing for everything [else]. But the ultimate goal today was to just go out and win.

Hey, great day for you guys. We’ll see you in Toowoomba. You do well at Toowoomba. That suits you.

Yeah, I like that track. It seems to form up quite deep and technical. I like those conditions. So sort of like today, it was deep and technical. I like the big hills there, and I like the track, so looking forward to that one. And obviously, QMP is the same. I like that track also. I’m looking forward to finishing out the season strong.

MX2

Image: Foremost Media.

Brodie Connolly, perfect day for you here at Canberra ProMX, take us through your day.

Yeah, it was a solid day, I can’t complain with a 1-1. I really enjoyed the track. I’ve never been here before, it’s always good to ride something different, and I think the club did a great job. First moto, I got a good start and then lost a bit of my flow around the middle, and Noah [Ferguson] caught me. I didn’t realise he was that close, so I had to put in a bit of a charge at that point. Second moto, good start, and I was able to ride my own race again – the weather made it interesting, but otherwise, it was good.

First moto with Ferguson, was that a case of needing to turn it up because he was right there? It seemed like that moment didn’t spook you too much…

No, not really. He almost passed me actually, up the inside of one of the turns and that’s when I realised he was there, and then I was able to pick it up and get a decent gap towards the end, but yeah it gave me a little bit of a fright because I didn’t realise that he was so close. It was hard to see the pitboard this weekend where it was located, so I couldn’t read it too much.

Thoughts on the track this weekend? Moto two, we got some rain, was it super slick, what was that like? I was amazed that you were still jumping everything.

It wasn’t as slippery as I thought it was going to be, those shiny spots on the upramps and downramps obviously were, but yeah, I was just able to get into a good flow, and that’s probably the best I have felt all year in that race, to be honest. It was one of those motos where everything felt easy, and we got lucky as it didn’t start raining heavily until the end, so we only got three or four laps of it. But all in all, I thought the track was cool.

Warwick wasn’t a bad day by any means, but was it important to rebound like you did today for the win?

Yeah for sure, going down off the start in moto two at Warwick was one of those things that are annoying, and you’re pissed off in that moment but I made the best of it. I wanted to win this weekend, and we were able to make it happen with a couple of good starts. It’s always nice to win after a challenging previous round.

Solid bag of points too, you’ve got to be happy with that in relation to the championship, and it has to drive a lot of confidence.

Yeah, for sure. I’ve been pretty confident the whole year, obviously Ryder [Kingsford] has been riding great, so it’s unfortunate to see him go down like that. But we’re taking it one race at a time, but yeah, for now, we are in a really good spot, and I am looking forward to the next two rounds.

These last two, with how they shape up and the surfaces, are you comfortable with each track?

Yeah, I have had good results there in the past. Toowoomba is one of my favourties, I reckon. The hardpack up and down the hills is pretty cool, and then QMP also gets pretty gnarly, so I hope it’s like that again because I like it when a track is technical and you can move around and find different lines.

We’ll see you there, and congratulations on a great weekend.

Sweet, thanks a lot!