Current Australian Pro Lites Supercross and Motocross Champion PJ Larsen continues to make progress in this year’s Monster Energy AMA Supercross East Coast Lites series, finishing a fighting fifth at Daytona last weekend.

Larsen, who spent a season last year in Australia with JDR Motorsports before returning home to join the team’s new U.S. operation, earned his season-best finish at Daytona after scoring fourth in his heat race earlier in the night.

“The gate pick was critical here tonight because the start was so important to this race,” Larsen explained. “I was happy to have a good heat race result so I was able to land a decent starting spot for the main.”

In the main event, Larsen lined up five gates over from the inside of the box next to Dean Wilson. He was able to get a good jump off the start and came around inside the top ten after the first corner. He moved up to 7th at the end of the first lap and stepped up to sixth on lap two.

Larsen put in a solid performance racing in sixth position through the majority of the race. Near the end of the race he was able to jump up one more position when Matt Lemoine crashed and that was where he finished.

“I was glad to put in a decent ride tonight. I am happy to improve upon my overall finish but I still feel I am a podium contender,” he continued. “I want to be on the podium and will continue to work hard to get there.”

Larsen’s 18-year-old JDR/J-Star/KTM Supercross class rookie teammate Tye Simmonds made his fourth main event of the season, eventually finishing 18th for the weekend as he continues his steep learning curve.

“I wasn’t able to get the best start and the lead group pulled away fast,” Simmonds said. “This course was definitely challenging tonight and I am just happy to have made the main event and put in a solid 20 laps.”

The team will head to Indianapolis this weekend for the 10th round of the AMA Supercross series.