Raceline Pirelli Suzuki’s Errol Willis has logged his weekend at Wanneroo’s fourth Monster Energy MX Nationals round as a learning experience, refusing to let his 15th place finish knock his confidence.

The 18-year-old MX2 rookie endured a tough race day in Western Australia, but maintains a top 10 position in the standings for the satellite Suzuki squad.

Willis finished with 13th in the opening moto, 21st in moto two after he was plagued by technical difficulties and then concluded the round with a fighting 13th despite a heavy fall early in the final outing.

“Today started off okay when I got a decent start in the first one, but I got tangled up, bent my gear lever and was stuck in third gear,” the current MXD champion explained. “I ended up finishing 13th, which wasn’t too bad considering my incident.

“In the second one we had a couple of bike problems during the moto, so I ended up 21st in that one. In the last one I got a real good start and came around the first corner in third, was pushing hard but I ended up going down.

“I had to restart the bike, so I was pretty tired after that and it was pretty much a case of damage control from there. I ended up 13th, which isn’t bad for Raceline Pirelli Suzuki, but I do look forward to getting back to tracks I’m more experienced at.”

Despite the result in the gruelling sands of Wanneroo, Willis remains focused on fighting toward the front of the MX2 pack as his experience expands.

“It can only be a good thing for me to have such a tough weekend,” he added. “To have such a tough weekend and still be looking forward is good, so I look forward to this weekend at Murray Bridge and hopefully we have some good results there for sure.”

The MX Development category (formerly Under 19s) didn’t feature a round at Wanneroo in WA. Instead, Raceline Pirelli Suzuki MXD contender Jay Wilson will return this weekend at Murray Bridge.