Image: Marc Jones (Foremost Media).

Penrite Honda Racing’s Brett Metcalfe has expressed the importance of capturing racing wins in the coming rounds of the Pirelli MX Nationals after a rare mechanical failure forced him to retire from the second outing in today’s season-opener in Newry, Victoria.

After setting the second-fastest lap-time during the Super Pole session, South Australian charger Metcalfe stormed to a respectable fourth in race one.

However his day was brought to a premature end while holding down third in moto two when a yet to be determined issue resulted in a chain derailment, cracking the engine cases in the process.

“The truth is, we don’t really know,” Metcalfe revealed to MotoOnline.com.au. “We had an issue with the drivetrain, and I can’t even tell you what’s happened, but the chain derailed and got crunched up in the front sprocket and cracked the cases.

“We don’t know if a rock got caught in there or something, but yeah, the chain came off and completely smashed the front cases. As a team, we just need to stick together through hard times like this – it’s not the first time, it’s motorsport and things happen.

“Now, mentally, we just need to prepare for the next round and take it race by race. It definitely puts us in a spot of tension – I can’t afford any more mistakes. Now it’s just really needing to get some wins – that’s the first step from here, to battle for race wins to be in championship contention – that’s the first step to get us to that point.”

The experienced international currently sits 17th in the championship standings, 42 points behind leader Dean Ferris (CDR Yamaha Monster Energy Team) as the series heads to Appin in New South Wales on 29 April.