Image: Supplied.

F&H Racing Kawasaki’s Jed Beaton took a top five finish overall in Argentina’s opening round of the 2018 MX2 World Championship, confident he can climb further up the order with improved starts in upcoming rounds.

The 20-year-old former national champion is contesting his first full season in the world championship aboard the KX250F, going 7-8 for fifth overall at Neuquen’s opener in a convincing start to his season.

“It was a good GP and I’m pretty happy with the result,” Beaton stated. “My starts were not very good and that’s something we need to work on before Valkenswaard. It was my first time at this track, which looked like it had a lot of grip, but in fact it was hard and slippery and it took me a while to get used to it. It was difficult to feel the track, but Valkenswaard will be different as I raced there last year in the EMX250.”

Beaton’s MX2 career has been an impressive one since completing a number of stand-in rides with Honda in the latter stages of last season, picking up third overall in France to cap-off 2017 and now continuing that form with P5 in Argentina to open this year.