Image: Foremost Media.

Five-time Australian SX1 champion Justin Brayton’s bid for a sixth-straight title was brought to an end at Newcastle, his final race mishap in the McDonald Jones Stadium Triple Crown round putting him mathematically out of contention.

Brayton, 39, opened the short, three-round 2023 AUSX series with a solid P2 finish inside the tight confines of the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, and signalled his intentions at round two by winning heat two.

He launched to an early lead in the first final, but was reeled in by Honda Racing teammate Dean Wilson when the pair encountered lapped traffic. The number 15 was able to capitalise and make a move for the lead to secure the race win, ahead of Brayton, who was second in both final one and then again in the second race of Triple Crown behind Wilson.

With full championship points on offer for each of the three encounters, Brayton was determined to claw back points, but an early incident with Luke Clout (CDR Yamaha Monster Energy) saw him brought down, ultimately registering an untimely DNF in the moto with damage to his bike after remounting.

It meant Brayton finished fifth overall on the night, but importantly, is now 29 points back from red plate-holder Wilson. With just one round left at Marvel Stadium on Friday, 24 November, and a maximum of 25 points on offer, the title-winning streak of Brayton will not continue this year.

“Even back to the beginning of the night in Newcastle, I really did everything in my power to close the points lead,” Brayton told MotoOnline. “Obviously Dean won the first round, I got second, but with such a short championship you have to make things happen early.

“I won the heat race, started the night off well, hole-shotted the first main… I thought I had that one pretty easy – I had a five- or six-second lead just cruising out front. Then I came up on a bunch of lappers, I had to roll the whoops and Dean was able to close up onto the back of me and was able to sneak past as I got held up.

“So that one was a huge bummer, because if we didn’t run into lappers… Honestly, the variance between us and the back of the pack at an Aussie supercross is so big. When I say lappers, it’s not like they are doing the same rhythms that we are or skimming the whoops, it’s a really big difference.

“I didn’t know what to do when I came up on them, because I really don’t know how they are going to ride. That is the difficult part, so yeah, if I won that one the points are tied up going into the next main, but unfortunately I got passed and was six points down at this stage.

“Dean straight up beat me in the next one, so I’m nine points down and we are going into the final race. Being a short, 10-lap race, I know how important the start is, and unfortunately Clout and I hit off the start when we were just starting to brake, so we are going pretty fast into that first turn.

“I just slammed the ground and was able to get up and get back on the bike, it was just my bike was so mangled. I don’t know if something happened to my pipe, but the power was way down as well, so I wouldn’t have been able to jump the triple or the finish line, that is why I was just rolling around… Just rolled around and unfortunately, that’s it, game over.

“When you have those short races, things can end quickly, but I also have to be thankful for the years past where I’ve swept some of those races and things have gone my way. Just part of racing, like I said earlier, I did everything in my power to bring it down to Melbourne, but just wasn’t in the cards this year.”

Brayton announced his retirement from full-time competition in the US last year, and is currently on a World Supercross Championship (WSX) and AUSX championship program with Yarrive Konsky’s Boost Mobile-backed Honda Racing organisation for 2023.

Having not raced in America this year and with multiple WSX rounds cancelled, his preparation was far more limited than previous years, but if anything, failure to defend his title has ignited a spark of intention to return to Australia next season in a bid for SX1 title number six.

“I would love to,” he added. “It’s always year-to-year and obviously I’ve had a long relationship with Yarrive, but now with him bringing Dean in, I’m not sure what’s going to happen with that. Time will tell. I have every intention to try and get that sixth championship next year and see how the cards fall with structure and World Supercross and all of that.

“Nothing is done yet, but it has definitely lit a little fire under me to come back and prepare a little differently. It’s been all different for me too, not having raced in the US, and how long it truly takes to prepare to get to a high level. It’s really, really difficult, and it’s the one percenters, a tiny bit here and a tiny bit there, that adds up to half a second a lap. Maybe that’s where I was in the past and to get back there, to be able to win the championship again.”

Before the final round of Australian Supercross and WSX later this month in Melbourne, Brayton will still travel to France this weekend and confirmed that he is fit to contest the Paris Supercross this weekend.