It was a perfect weekend for MX1 championship leader Jed Beaton in Canberra, with the Monster Energy CDR Yamaha rider topping qualifying and going 1-1 in the motos. In this Debrief feature, MotoOnline caught up with the 28-year-old following at the conclusion of race day.

Image: Foremost Media.

Superpole speed

It was not the greatest first lap because obviously with all the ruts and how the track was, you don’t get a sight lap for the superpole, so sort of didn’t have the cleanest of first laps. And then the second one, yeah, sort of found a few more lines and yeah, just made the track flow a little bit, which is nice. When you really sort of have that flow, it just makes it a whole lot easier to ride, so yeah, felt really good in that session. And I mean, a moto is always different too, because I didn’t feel as good in the motos, like just wasn’t clicking off the laps and laps. I was changing my lines here and there, and I just, I knew I didn’t have the greatest lines, but when you’re out front and you’ve just had that gap, it’s hard to just switch lines unless you come up to a few lappers. And actually when I was behind the lappers, my lines were pretty clean, so I was just sort of sticking to them.

Improved starts

Yeah, obviously I’ve worked a bit on the starts and just made them sort of tried to make them a little bit more consistent. And then obviously, like you said, you’re gonna try and put yourself in a good position for the first lap, especially like a first moto like that, when the track’s, you know, pretty sketchy and there’s no real lines. It was just like clumps of mud everywhere. I made a few good passes in that and it was, it’s sort of a bit easier to pass when it’s like that, because no one really knows where they’re going. But with the track and the second moto, obviously just being set from the first one, it’s probably more important to be up the front because everyone sort of sorted their lines out. So yeah, got off to probably, I think I was like third around the first turn and then straight into the lead to the second turn.

Mindset while leading

I had to gauge that one in the second moto. Obviously the first moto I had [a lead] as well and I was just sort of ticking off the laps and just having a look over. And the second one there, I thought Aaron [Tanti] was actually in second for a long time. And when I did look over, Aaron was there and I was sort of gauging him out the back. He was jumping the last tabletop as I was jumping towards him. And then, yeah, I seen on the pit board with like two or three laps to go, [Kyle Webster] minus two. It sort of caught me off guard because I didn’t see him like in that same spot. so he must’ve actually had a really good lap and gained on me and I just didn’t see it. So yeah, the last few laps were pretty chaos – we knew we had some lappers coming up and yeah, they weren’t the easiest to pass.

Image: Foremost Media.

Performing under pressure

It just it makes you switch on. I feel like if you’re riding out the front by yourself, you just start sort of day-dreaming a little bit. Yeah, I like it. It’s a bit of pressure and it makes you focus on what you’re doing again. And if you don’t snap back to it, you can make a lot of mistakes in that point. You’ve got to actually switch on to hit the lines good or maybe switch lines. And I was honestly in them last couple of laps, I was in pretty much cruise control because I thought I had a seven second gap or something. And then, yeah, it caught me off guard. But I was able to switch on and then do the last few laps with decent enough speed that I didn’t actually get past.

Keeping calm

I’ve just got like a different mindset going in this year. I know like, I think I just had too much pressure on myself last year, to be honest, and I know what I can do when I ride good. And my goal is to just ride my best. And like you said, you ride your best when you calm. And honestly, that’s just the goal is to go out there, be calm and ride the best I can. And when I am riding the best I can, I know I’m going to be a hard guy to beat. That’s just the best opportunity to get wins, to be honest, is ride myself. So yeah, I’ve done a lot of focus on that. Obviously when you land on the couch for four months, you do a lot of thinking. So yeah, I’ve definitely changed a few things. I mean, just the mental… Probably the mental side of things for the two weeks, first two weeks when I first got injured was probably the biggest thing. Yeah, I was pretty upset for the first couple of days, but obviously that changes pretty quickly when you’re laying on the couch and all you’re really worried about is getting better. And then just your focus sort of shifts to rehab. Like I just spent four months grafting in the gym, just trying to do rehab and rehab and rehab just so I could be back to the level. You’re either from laying on the couch to being in the gym with no one in there for two hours straight, just in pain, trying to graft and think of ways that you can be a little bit better. And if you had have been a little bit wiser when you were younger, it would be different. It seems to be the broken record that everyone says, but it seems to be true. But that’s the thing I enjoy now is passing it on to the younger guys. And it’s really nice to see the boys from our program performing at a good level in the 250 class as well.