Image: Rhys van Slooten.

Crankt Protein Honda Racing Team’s Jay Wilson has left round one of the 2016 Motul MX Nationals with plenty of positives following a strong debut in the premier class.

The 2015 MX2 champion kicked off his MX1 career with an impressive qualifying time, landing himself a spot in the GoPro Super Pole where he finished fourth fastest.

Following qualifying, Wilson raced to eighth in moto one, followed by 11th in moto two, handing the 21-year-old a 10th overall finish at the conclusion of round one.

“I was quite happy to see that I had the speed to run inside the top five during qualifying this morning,” said Wilson. “So even though on paper it wasn’t the result that I wanted, we are taking a lot of positives out of round one.

“The best thing about today was that the CRF450 worked really well – I had a lot of trust in the bike and that definitely eased the nerves a lot. We’re going to make a few changes in the next two weeks, and try and improve on the final result at round two.”

Following the 2015 Horsham event where Jay’s younger brother, Dylan Wilson, crashed heavily forcing the event to be cancelled, the Queenslander admits he is glad to leave the event on a positive note and move on to the remaining nine events.

“After everything that happened at Horsham for myself personally in 2015, I was really glad to just get through the day and put round one behind me,” he added.

Wilson will make his second appearance in the MX1 category at Appin’s second round of the 2016 Motul MX Nationals on 17 April.