Dominating the opening three rounds of the 2018 Australian Supercross Championship, two-time defending champion Justin Brayton recorded his first blemish of the series at Port Adelaide after believing to be a target in Saturday’s Triple Crown.

The American import says that riders were racing him rather than the track, forcing his focus to shift and ride defensively in the three main events.

Being gifted the victory in race one due to Luke Clout’s (KTM Motocross Racing Team) penalty, the Penrite Honda Racing contender was forced to overcome incidents in the following outings, lodging 8-3 results to position himself second overall for the round.

“I got bad starts and it hurt my overall in these short races, also crashing didn’t help,” Brayton explained. “I found riders racing me instead of the track and I had to shift my focus and ride defensively. I salvaged what I could.

“I want to congratulate Metty – whilst I want to win, I was happy to see him win in front of his kids and family. That’s special for him and the team. I now need to turn my attention to Sydney and the championship. Sydney is one race I haven’t won and I dearly want to win there.”

The premier class title fight has tightened to just six points following Brett Mectalfe’s (Penrite Honda Racing) victory, with just one round to spare at the Monster Energy AUS-X Open Sydney next month.