Yamaha Motor Australia press release:

Serco Yamaha’s Luke Clout kicked off his 2015 Australian Supercross Championship in fine form with a second place finish in the SX2 division at round one of the series at Bathurst over the weekend.

On a difficult, rutted and sometimes wet racing surface, Clout overcame a crash in his heat race to qualify for the 250cc main event and was confident of a better performance during the final.

He leapt from the gates and charged into the lead with the full 20 rider field in pursuit. Riding smoothly out front, Clout took control of the race and led for nine laps before US import, Jimmy DeCostis, made his move and took over the top spot.

With just three laps remaining, Clout stayed on the US rider and pressured him all the way to the end of the 12 lap race, but couldn’t manage to make a pass and finished in second place.

“It was good to get the first round out of the way and be up on the podium,” Clout explained. “My preparation has been a bit all over the place because of my call up to race at the Motocross Of Nations but I still felt I raced the main event well and can take not only some good points, but also some confidence from it.

“Jimmy was riding well and I saw a few things that he was doing that was faster, so I will practice that during the week and hopefully I can reverse the result at round two this weekend,” Clout said.

It was a tough night for team mate, Jed Beaton, who was competing at his very first supercross event. Beaton has had an injury interrupted preparation and again fell during the night but continued to battle bravely and the experience will only be a benefit to him in the future.

“It wasn’t a great night for me as I made too many mistakes and crashed a couple of times. But, the positive was that I was able to gain experience in supercross on a proper race track and I feel now I know what to expect and can be better prepared for the coming rounds.

“It’s a six round series so my goal is to improve every round and I’m sure I will be a much better rider at the end of the series than I am now,” Beaton signs off.

Round two of the 2015 Australian Supercross Championship heads to Queensland this weekend with Jimboomba, just south of Brisbane, hosting the event. With the Serco Yamaha team based in Brisbane, it is a home town race for the Yamaha supported MX2 team and they will be looking for a strong showing in front of a huge crowd expected at the venue.

To follow the Serco Yamaha team on social media; www.facebook.com/sercoyamaha or @sercoyamaha