Serco Yamaha’s Luke Clout picked up his second career victory in the MX2 ranks of the Monster Energy MX Nationals last Sunday at Appin, taking over the championship leader’s red plates in the process.

MotoOnline.com.au spoke to Clout to get his perspective on the weekend, Yamaha’s brand new YZ250F and more.

Image: Jeff Crow.

Well done on the victory, the second overall that you have had in MX2. This is a great way to prove that you are back and possibly even stronger than ever for 2014.

Yeah, I feel a lot better than what I did last year. I feel a lot smoother and more consistent, so I think I can get the job done now. I definitely proved that today; I rode pretty flawless in the first race with Kale [Makeham] behind me.

That second race I got off to a bad start, but I put it right up there and rode smart and got into third, did what I had to do and got the overall. So happy days!

It’s a track that you ride at a lot, well a venue you ride at a lot, but not actually this track. What did you think of the track today?

I thought the track was unreal, they did a great job. I don’t ride here that often; I’ve only ridden here twice. It’s my first national here and I think they did an awesome job. It was very good for racing with multiple lines and stuff. So it was a good race track – probably one of the best I have ever been to.

The YZ250F is of course a new bike. It looks really good out there against the two-strokes and you said on the podium that you had a lot of confidence in the bike.

Yeah, for sure. We have done a lot of testing and I knew I was going to be very confident coming in. As I said, we have done a lot of testing and I think our bike is really competitive, a lot more competitive than last year even.

It goes to show with a bike that can race with the 250 two-stroke, I think it has the 250 two-strokes in its sight. So I think it’s a great bike and Serco have produced an awesome bike.

Image: Jeff Crow.

Your teammate Jay Wilson hung on for that race two win from Makeham, which basically sealed you the overall. Were you aware that Jay had to keep Kale behind him for you to win the round, or not until you finished?

I was kind of aware. In the last five minutes I saw it on the pit board, so I was actually having a look over my shoulder just to see what the guys behind me were doing and then I just knew it was in their hands.

I just rode to third and if I got second overall, so be it. It’s a long championship. But it paid off, the 1-3 got me the overall win for the day.

The win sees you now with the red plate. That’s a good step after a mixed opening round at Broadford, isn’t it?

Yeah, definitely we didn’t have the best first round at Broadford, so I knew I had a lot of work to do. But to get the red plate this early is a bit of a surprise to me because Kayne [Lamont] is riding very well and he had a bit of a unlucky round today.

So to get the red plate now is awesome. We just have to keep it there and keep building and keep it for the rest of season.

Good job, you rode awesome.

Thanks!