Australian MX2 champion Jed Beaton is confident in his strong pre-season preparations ahead of his EMX250 debut at Maggiora’s fifth round of the 2017 MXGP World Championship in Italy on 16 April.

Landing a seat with the Carglass Honda Racing team for the upcoming season, the 19-year-old has spent recent weeks training alongside the likes of 2015 Australian MX1 champion, Kirk Gibbs, to ensure peak form in his European adventure.

“I feel pretty good, Gibbsy has been down for the last two weeks and we’ve done heaps of riding, so that’s been good for both of us,” Beaton told MotoOnline.com.au. “Also having Wilson Todd down too has been good to do a lot of riding, we’ve been doing a lot and I’m feeling good, confident and ready to go.

“I have expectations, but not too high of myself straight away – I just want to build into it. I know it’s a long season and it’s going to be completely different over there and it will take me a while to get used to it.”

In contrast to fellow Australians Caleb Ward and Jay Wilson in the MX2 category for 2017, the well-credentialed Victorian believes his decision to race the EMX250 series will be beneficial for his career in the long-run.

“Yeah, I’m the Australian champion, but I’m a lot younger than the other guys that are in the MX2 class, so I think it’s a better option for me to go over and join the EMX class,” he explained. “It’s a good learning experience, you get the learn most of the tracks and it’s something for me to build off over the years.

“Obviously MX2 has an age limit and I’m still young enough to go into the EMX class, build each round and try get some good results to land a decent MX2 ride. The way I want to go about it is to build each and every round, get used to it over there instead of throwing myself in the deep-end straight up, I feel it will be a lot more beneficial for me doing that.”

Beaton will spend just two more weeks in the country before relocating to his new base in Holland to work on the final touches ahead of the EMX250 season opener.