Image: Foremost Media.

A series of strong performances at Maitland’s Pirelli MX Nationals on Sunday have marked a step forward for Dylan Long, who’s been displaying improvements over the last two rounds after an elbow injury sidelined him for much of the opening half of the championship.

The Empire Kawasaki ace posted a 7-5 scorecard in the opening sprint races for a moto one ranking of fifth, while in the final outing, he charged to sixth for sixth overall – just one point shy of the top five, and two points off fourth position.

“It was a pretty good day for me,” Long commented. “I didn’t qualify the best, but it was better than the last round. My starts were really good today – the first race I was running fourth before hitting neutral and crashing.

“I dropped back to 10th, but managed to finish seventh, so that wasn’t too bad. I was fifth in the second one and, in the last one, I came back from about 10th to finish sixth. I was only one point off of fifth overall, so it was a decent day for me.”

The popular Victorian is ranked 17th in the championship standings with just four rounds under his belt, while the MX Nationals will return to action on 28 July at Moree in New South Wales for the eighth stop of the series.