New South Wales-born 17-year-old Luke Clout returned from a lengthy trip to the USA to race his first motocross race in years in his homeland at Moree’s penultimate round of the Monster Energy MX Nationals.

Fresh off two podiums at Loretta Lynn’s, Clout cruised to three victories in the MXD class after an 11th-hour arrangement to race the final two rounds of the series under the MX Factory Honda tent.

MotoOnline.com.au caught up with this rising young star to see what he thought of the Aussie scene after a long time away.

This was your first race in Australia in more than a year. How was it coming back to your roots?

It was really good and I had a lot of fun. I was expecting the competition to be good, but not this good. Everyone was riding amazing and they made it hard for me in that last moto.

I got bumped around a little bit, but I came from behind to win by around 5-10 seconds and went 1-1-1 for the overall.

You’ve had Loretta Lynn’s experience and pretty much live at the Millsaps Training Facility. Has that experience helped step your game up to the level you’re at now? I mean, your qualifying time would’ve put you within the top four of the MX2 class.

Definitely. I’ve picked up about five or six seconds in the past year and Colleen [Millsaps] has really pushed us. She’s helped me a lot with my mental game and it’s working out great.

Loretta Lynn’s was the best experience of my life – I’ve never ridden so good and to get a second in 450 B Stock and a third in 250 B Mod classes has been the highlight of my career so far. I’m really happy and looking forward to going back.

Was that your first Loretta’s outing?

It was actually my second. I went in 2011 as well and got a sixth overall in the 250 B stock class, so to improve so much in 12 months to climb up on two podiums was really rewarding.

How do you rate the Australian talent compared to the US?

Everyone here is really fast, a lot faster than I was expecting. Dylan Leary rode insane today and really impressed me. I guess the biggest difference is over in the US there are 15 guys who can win on any given day.

The depth of the field here isn’t as deep, but the pace of the fast guys here is right up there.

Word is you’re going to be racing Coolum as well, yeah?

Yeah, I’m looking forward to that. I love riding in sand, so hopefully I can keep it rolling. Afterwards I’ll go home to NSW for four weeks, then I’ve got to head back to the States.

I’ve got some stuff in California I’ve got to sort out – I’m hoping to get a factory ride over there, then the plan is to jump up to the AMA pro series. Fingers crossed it all works out.

Nice work, mate. Man, for someone who’s been in the US for a while you’ve still got a pretty Aussie accent!

Yeah I’ve been there for a year and I haven’t picked up on it yet. It’s definitely good for the ladies [laughs]. I try and keep it real.

[Laughs] great stuff, Luke. Great ride and we’ll see you at Coolum.

Thanks mate.