Image: Foremost Media.

The cameo appearance of Jed Beaton at Washougal’s Pro Motocross round was brought to an early end with a throttle fault in moto two, but the Australian remains positive about his overall experience in the US.

Concluding his debut in the AMA Pro Motocross Championship, 25-year-old Beaton completed the first lap of the second moto in P11, before the issue forced him out of the race in its early stages.

“The throttle cable like popped off in between the tube and the housing,” Beaton told MotoOnline. “It just got jammed and I couldn’t even release the throttle.”

Boost Mobile Honda Racing regular Beaton qualified a solid ninth on combined times and finished the opening race in 13th, notably running inside the top 10 for much of the first half of the race until he was affected by the summer temperatures of 30-plus degrees.

Beaton was a surprise late addition to the 450MX field on the weekend, putting together a deal at the 11th-hour that saw him reunited with now Team Honda HRC test mechanic Ben Griffith, who he had worked with earlier in his career at home.

“It was quite good, I mean a good experience,” Beaton added. “It was difficult to get used to the track in a short amount of time, but every time I went on the track I felt a bit better. Struggled in the first one, got a bit of arm-pump and, honestly, I struggled a little bit with the heat to be fair – it’s like almost 33 degrees here and I’ve come from 10, 12 degrees back home.

“It’s a big shock to the system, but it was cool. I’m glad I’ve done it , glad I’ve come here. I’ve met a lot of people and had a good time. It’s a shame I couldn’t ride the way I wanted to ride, but hey, that’s riding motocross isn’t it? I enjoyed the qualifying part of it, just to see what it’s like, do something different. They obviously have the two 15-minute sessions here, then go straight into the motos.

“It was cool to see how it all runs and see what it is all about. The qualifying was probably a little bit better for me, obviously doing the one lap and pushing the bike to the limit and seeing what it is like over here. You can’t go too much on what it is like over here compared to home though, because the tracks are a lot faster, the hills here are a lot gnarlier… Back home, we don’t get that so much.”

The next national outing for Beaton in Australia is the penultimate round of the 2023 Penrite ProMX Championship at Queensland Moto Park (QMP) on 13 August, entering the weekend second in the MX1 standings and currently seven points back from title rival Dean Ferris (Brisbane Motorcycles Yamaha).