It was a tough first showing for recently-signed Yamalube Yamaha Racing rider Kaleb Barham, a fall in the early laps of MX2 moto one at Gillman leaving him with an untimely ligament injury to his right thumb.

Barham began round five of the Penrite ProMX Championship with P17 in qualifying, with his day ending soon after finishing 13th the first encounter on debut with the YZ250F.

However, with the rare opportunity to join Yamaha’s in-house program for the remainder of this season, Barham is aiming to continue his campaign at Toowoomba following surgery this week.

“Unfortunately, I just made a little mistake in the first moto as I was coming through the pack,” Barham told MotoOnline. “I ended up grabbling my thumb on the ’bars and pulling the ligament over the wrong side of the tendon. So, pretty well I could make my thumb touch my wrist, which wasn’t fun.

“I rode the rest of the race out, came back through from well outside the top 30 to 13th, which was okay considering the circumstances. I elected to sit out moto two, just because I knew something wasn’t right.

“I got home Monday and went straight to doctor Steven Andrews – he’s got me booked for surgery tomorrow. I’ll go in and have a quick operation and straighten it all out and hopefully it should only be two weeks off the bike. We should be good to go for my home race at Echo Valley.”

In what will be a local round on the calendar for Barham, the 2023 Penrite ProMX Championship heads to Echo Valley in Toowoomba for round seven on Sunday, 25 June.