Tasmanian Jed Beaton has made a highly-impressive debut in the MX2 World Championship, racing to 12th overall aboard a factory Honda CRF250RW at the MXGP of Czech Republic last weekend.

In what was his first of three appearances with the Team HRC MX2 outfit that sees him replace injured athlete Chihiro Notsuka, Beaton went onto place a solid 14th in race one to kickstart Sunday’s race day, an improvement over his 18th result in Saturday’s qualifying heat.

The Australian went from strength to strength in moto two, negotiating his way into 12th, to then put on a charge that would see him cross the line in a standout ninth position.

“Today was a good day for me,” Beaton explained. “Like I said, I wanted to improve every time I rode and that is exactly what I did this weekend. I know I just need to improve my starts as I didn’t have a good gate today and as a result I had to put in a lot of extra work to get the results.

“In the first race, I had to lose my goggles 15 minutes into the race, but the race was not so bad. The second race the track had dried out and it was so much better and it was a better result. I just tried to ride consistently ride and maintain my speed and positions.”

Beaton’s performance is even more impressive considering the event signified his return from a collarbone injury that sidelined him for multiple weeks, but it’s evident the downtime didn’t negatively affect the Honda rider.

The youthful talent will continue to contest the next two rounds of the MX2 World Championship before returning to his regular role in the European Motocross Championship with the Carglass Honda Racing team.