South Australian Brett Metcalfe says Anaheim 1 was a great learning experience in his 450 debut.

Australia’s Brett Metcalfe says that he learned a lot in his Supercross Class debut for Rockstar Makita Suzuki at Anaheim’s AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, season opener last weekend.

Metcalfe, the newest member of the Rockstar Makita Suzuki team, had a great first-ever 450 heat race aboard his RM-Z450 with a solid third-place finish.

The current AMA Motocross number two took the momentum of his heat race to the main event, where he raced to eighth overall despit going off track in the early laps.

“I started out a little tight and uncomfortable in practice,” said Metcalfe. “My Rockstar Makita Suzuki team was able to make some adjustments and by the time we got to the heat race, I was feeling really good and I was happy with the set up on my Suzuki RM-Z450 – it was time to go racing.

“My heat race turned out really good. I got a good start and ran up to about second and ended up finishing third. I had another great start in the main, was up front, comfortable and felt like I was in the groove.

“But then I made a big mistake and went off the track and that really upset my rhythm for a few laps. After that, I lost touch with the lead group and just wanted to finish out those 20 laps and not make any more mistakes.

“We had a pretty good first day and learned a lot and I’m looking forward to going to Phoenix.”

The second round of the series will be staged at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona, this weekend.