A sense of intensity was in the air entering the sixth ProMX round of the season at Canberra, with an underlying tone that whatever the results were exiting the ACT would be pivotal in each respective title fight. For Monster Energy CDR Yamaha’s Jed Beaton, a concentrated 1-1 extended his margin to 29, potentially enabling him to place one hand on the 2025 MX1 crown.

Following a season-long battle with defending champion Kyle Webster (Boost Mobile Honda), Beaton entered the weekend with a 15-point advantage over the number one, which in a lot of respects was a healthy gap, although one that could still – within reason – be overhauled by Webster if he were to catch fire across those remaining three rounds.

Understanding how consequential a result at Canberra was, the 27-year-old Beaton arrived with a winning mindset and was relentless in his approach across the day.

Image: Foremost Media.

“It was a bit of a different weekend, knowing that a lot fell on how things went here for the championship moving forward,” Beaton told MotoOnline. “Extending that points gap was crucial and makes the next two rounds a little more enjoyable, but fortunately, we were able to feel good on the track from the very beginning, which extended throughout the day.”

The MX1 narrative was turned on its head from the get-go this year, with Webster conceding 22 points to Beaton leaving the opening round in Wonthaggi thanks to a second-race DNF. In a ‘must-win’ situation, the Western Australian embraced this by going on to capture the next five of seven moto victories and shrink the gap to 13 points entering Warwick.

With momentum working on a pendulum, things have now shifted toward the number 14’s favour, with Beaton having won three of the last four motos. This hasn’t been an easy feat, however, as a mindset shift between the fifth and sixth rounds was responsible for increased performance last Sunday.

Interestingly, the format of the ProMX season compared to his time spent on the MXGP circuit in Europe had an influence, with all-out pace at a premium over pure consistency.

“I think everyone was kind of waiting for a performance like that from me, and between the rounds, I did a lot of digging to understand how I could uncork that,” he continued. “Our series here is quite short compared to the GPs, and the old consistency approach isn’t something that’s going to help you win necessarily, as I found out last year.

“I felt that the first part of this season, I was caught in that mindset again of racking up good points and being consistent, but it’s not always the way. So that realisation was a big one for me, and something that helped me ride to my full potential last weekend.”

Image: Foremost Media.

The proposition becomes even more intriguing because while consistency is always important, in a largely two-horse race, which has been the case these last two years, consistency literally means winning races, because if Beaton isn’t, Webster is.

From a traditional outlook where there may be four or five riders in the mix, consistency undoubtedly pays dividends, but in this current Australian motocross landscape, that isn’t necessarily the case. Such a situation, if you are a so-called diesel like Beaton, can be a paradigm that needs to be transcended.

“It’s a hard one, and 100 percent took me a bit to realise because you always want to be consistent, but I mean, it’s the difference between first and second for the most part, meaning there are only three points in a moto, or six on a weekend,” he explained. “We’re fighting for first or second, which raises the intensity, and as I said with last year, consistency doesn’t always work out.”

A point subject to a lot of analysis has been the close relationship between Webster and Beaton off the track, as well as the shared training program with elder brother Ross’ Beaton’s Pro Formula group. Though coming with a range of positives, there are negatives also, with Jed refraining from an aggressive move on Webster at Warwick that may have left him on the ground.

Not dwelling on the past, Beaton mentioned that an added layer of intensity in that aspect is something he needed to find, whilst maintaining the relationship in the process: “I wouldn’t say I left Warwick with a bitter taste, I just didn’t go for an opportunity that I thought I had, which would’ve been aggressive.

Image: Foremost Media.

“Looking forward, if I put myself in that position again, I think I would take it, but it’s hard when you’re racing a close friend, and I want to steer clear of doing that type of riding. But at the end of the day, Sunday is race day, and I think that transitioning in my mind like that is one thing I have needed to work on, is not being such a nice guy on a race weekend.”

Two rounds remain in this year’s Penrite ProMX championship, and with Beaton’s 29-point buffer now following an instrumental Canberra triumph, Webster – who himself has been facing an up-hill battle through injury in recent weeks – may not be able to rely on sheer pace from here on out if he is to successfully defend his title.

There’s two rounds to go – Toowoomba and Queensland Moto Park on consecutive weekends coming up – but it’s evident that following six of eight weekends on the calendar, the 2025 championship is now Beaton’s to lose. Following a lengthy stint in MXGP and after falling short upon his homecoming, only now is he in a strong position to finally add to the MX2 title that he won nearly a full decade ago in 2016.