One of the early success stories from the opening rounds of AUSX Supercross 2025 has been Yamaha-mounted privateer Luke Zielinski. The Queenslander impressed at Redcliffe, mixing it towards the front of SX1 and scoring a career-high P5 finish at round two, before unfortunately being injured in Cronulla. He features in this latest Profiled interview.

Zielinski came into the current season after an extended break from racing, having stepped away early in the ProMX series following an injury and a string of setbacks that left him mentally and physically burnt out. Choosing to reset and rebuild, his return to the sport through AUSX marked a fresh chapter – and quickly turned heads for all the right reasons.

Image: Foremost Media.

“Yeah, I don’t know – I really didn’t know what to expect at all coming into it,” Zielinski told MotoOnline. “It’s so late in the year and I hadn’t really planned on doing anything, but at the last minute I decided to race. Once I got back on the bike, I felt really good straight away.

“All through pre-season I just stuck to my usual program, and honestly, I was loving the bike. Everything just clicked – I felt comfortable the whole time and nothing went wrong. Going into Redcliffe, I had no expectations, I just told myself to ride the way I do during the week. From the first session I felt extremely comfortable, and that’s something I’ve struggled with on race days in the past.”

Zielinski impressed all weekend long in Moreton Bay’s opening rounds, taking P3 in his opening SX1 heat race of the season, and then recording a 6-8 scorecard in Saturday night’s finals for P9 overall.

Backing it up on Sunday afternoon, Zielinski went on to put together an even better run of results in round two, taking third again in his heat race, and then going on to finish fifth overall with an impressive 5-6 scorecard, leaving the double-header sixth in the SX1 standings.

Image: Foremost Media.

“I was really happy with the result because I didn’t know where I’d stack up, and everyone else is riding so well,” he continued. “But at the same time, I felt like that’s just how I can ride every weekend when I’m comfortable – it wasn’t about being faster, it was just that everything flowed. The results kind of came naturally.

“Heading into the second night, I thought if I could crack the top 10, I’d be happy. To finish fifth on Sunday, especially after such a long time off, I was stoked with that. Going into Sydney, I tried to keep the same mindset. I struggled a bit during the day and didn’t feel quite as sharp, but overall, I still think I rode really well. Even though the results weren’t as strong, I was in good positions and riding consistently.”

Cronulla’s third round nearly delivered more of the same for the 22-year-old, who was building momentum with a strong fifth in his heat and eighth in the opening final. However, a late crash with just over a lap remaining in final two left him sidelined, suffering a broken scapula and a deflated lung.

“I was in a position for another solid result in Sydney, but on the second-last lap, I took a slightly different line in the whoops to get around a lapped rider,” Zielinski said. “It wasn’t their fault at all – I just washed the front wheel coming out of the berm, and before I knew it, I was on the ground. The way I landed, I couldn’t move or breathe, and the pain in my ribs was unreal.

“The medics got to me quickly and took me to hospital, where at first I honestly thought I’d broken multiple ribs because it felt like my whole rib cage had caved in. After scans, they found that my right lung was deflated – not a full collapse, and I’d fractured my right scapula straight through. There wasn’t much they could do other than monitor it, so I flew home the next day to start the recovery process.”

Image: Foremost Media.

Now, with the final two rounds fast approaching, the four-week break between Cronulla and Melbourne is quickly shrinking, followed immediately by the Adelaide finale the following weekend. The clock is ticking for Zielinski to recover in time for the AUSX Open and continue what has been an impressive return to form in 2025.

“At this point, I’m just doing what I can to keep things moving,” he explained. “The plan is still to line up in Melbourne, but I’ll see Dr. Andrews in about a week to check on how everything’s healing and how I’m feeling pain-wise. Ideally, I’ll get back on the bike about a week before the event to see how it feels, but I’m also realistic about it – there’s no point going down there unless I’m 100 percent.

“It wouldn’t be fair to myself or to everyone who supports me if I wasn’t able to ride properly, so the focus right now is on getting my shoulder right as quickly as possible and taking it day by day from here.”