Source: Supplied.

Australia’s Jed Beaton made his way to the overall podium at Villars Sous Ecot in France securing a career-best MX2 World Motocross Championship finish as a part-time contender in the category.

In his fourth appearance in MX2 with the Honda HRC team, the Carglass-Honda Racing EMX250 regular kicked off the season finale with a fourth place qualifying ride to secure a strong gate pick for both motos.

“My Saturday went pretty good, I had a good qualifying race which meant I had a good gate pick and that helped a lot,” Beaton said. “My starts this weekend were a lot better too.”

Released from his EMX250 contract to contest the event, the 2016 Motul MX Nationals MX2 champion made the most of the opportunity riding to an impressive 3-4 moto score for third overall on the day aboard the all-new 2018 Honda CRF250R.

“I wasn’t originally going to race in MX2 this weekend but thankfully Carglass Honda released me and allowed me to take up the opportunity and I am really grateful for that,” Beaton explained. “To get third overall in my fourth ever MX2 race is a really awesome feeling.

“It was awesome to see the team so pumped about it and they have been so good at setting the bike up for me as I only raced it for the first time in Assen last weekend.”

In his first trip to the MX2 podium, Beaton joined Australia’s Hunter Lawrence who also captured a career-best overall finish of second position to round out his rookie year.