Sunday was a case of what could have been for Empire Kawasaki’s Luke Clout after he crashed out of podium contention in the opening MX1 moto, which ruled the former national champion out of Murray Bridge altogether before revealing he’s ‘just banged up and frustrated’.

Clout qualified in third position at the conclusion of the Pole Shootout and was positioned P2 behind red plate-holder Kyle Webster (Boost Mobile Honda Racing) in the opening laps of the first encounter.

That was as good as things got for the 2021 MX1 championship winner, going down on lap three and unable to remount his KX450. That spelt the end of his weekend in South Australia, but is confident that the team has taken a step forward for the second half of the season.

“I got off to an awesome start in the first race,” Clout told MotoOnline. “I got myself into second, Kyle [Webster] was pulling away a little bit, but I started to find my rhythm and started to feel really good on the bike. It’s the first time [this year] that I’ve had that comfort, and I felt like we were in for a pretty good moto there.

“But I came into one of the turns and hit a massive hole and it threw me… I thought I was going to save it, but landed in some of the soft spots and it threw me down I landed on top of my bike and copped a handlebar to the back and into my stomach.

“I’m all good, just banged up and frustrated. We definitely found something in these last few weeks, the bike was awesome today. That’s the first time I’ve said that, but I felt like I let the team down today, which is frustrating. We just have to look at the positives – I was the closest I’ve been in superpole and sitting second in the first moto.”

Following his non-finish and opting out of the second moto, Clout has dropped to seventh in the Penrite ProMX Championship standings with three rounds remaining – all based in Queensland, where he currently resides as part of the Ford Dale Elite training program.