Tasmanian-native Jed Beaton has held onto his top five ranking in the MX2 World Championship following a difficult and challenging weekend at Kegums’ seventh stop of the series in Latvia.

The F&H Racing Kawasaki ace struggled with starts all weekend long, which only played against him in the gruelling conditions. Adding to his woes was a clash with Thomas Covington (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing), which ultimately relegated down the order in the final outing.

Notching up 14-10 race results, Beaton salvaged 13th overall in a round that admittedly didn’t go to plan, however he’s already looking ahead to Germany’s eighth stop this weekend.

“This weekend didn’t really go to plan,” Beaton expressed. “I didn’t get any good starts and that didn’t help me on this rough track. In the first moto I found it difficult to build a rhythm, then in the second I had good pace and was seventh when Covington hit me – we both went down, it broke my rhythm and I couldn’t really do much after that.

“The track was really strange this weekend; they watered it so the sand was heavy on some sections and very hard in others, but it was the same for everyone. Overall it wasn’t a great weekend, but I’m looking forward to Germany.”

The Australian favourite sits on 174 points in the standings, 36 points behind third place’s Ben Watson (Kemea Yamaha Official MX2) and 18 points ahead of Calvin Vlaanderen (Honda HRC) who currently holds down fifth.