Image: Jeff Crow.

Serco Yamaha’s Luke Clout avoided disaster in the Raymond Terrace round of the Monster Energy MX Nationals on Sunday after mechanical issues plagued his results in motos one and two.

Clout was denied any chance of the MX2 overall when his YZ250F experienced unknown mechanical problems during the opening motos, before he won the final moto on board his backup bike.

His bike developed a misfire during race one that slowed his charge to the front and he could only manage a third place finish. The Serco team worked feverishly between the motos to address the issue running several test runs prior to the race and believed they had found the problem but once again, as the race went passed halfway, the bike slowed and this time he dropped back to 11th.

That victory in the final moto was enough to ensure he stretched his series lead to 28 points with fourth overall.

“I was desperate to do well as this is like a local race for me and I had plenty of friends and family here today,” he said. “We aren’t really sure what was happening with the bike as it would run fine for a while, then slowly get worse as the race went on to the point where I was even lucky to finish the second race.

“We couldn’t pinpoint the issue, although it did seem heat related as it was fine until several laps into the race, so we just swapped to the spare bike and I was able to win the race and salvage some points for the day. It’s my first race win in a while so that felt pretty good.

“It was fortunate to have a day like I had and to still increase my lead in the championship but I will gladly take it.”

Clout now leads the series by 28 points over Kiwi rookie Hamish Harwood, with Raymond Terrace round winner Luke Arbon a further 11 points back in third.