Jed Beaton won the final battle but finished runner-up in the war which was the 2024 New Zealand Motocross Championships.
Contesting the MX1 division for the JCR Yamaha team, Beaton entered the final round in Taranaki looking to bridge a significant points gap to championship leader, Hamish Harwood. Beaton needed to win everything and also have Harwood slip up somewhere along the way to claim the number 1 plate.
Things then took another turn when rain hit the area in the days leading up to the event and forced organisers to push the Saturday race back to Sunday to ensure a round was able to be run. The weather then played its part and Sunday dawned fine, the track crew did an amazing job to get the track up to spec and the final round was on.
Beaton won the day with 1-1-2 results in the three motos contested but came up short in the championship chase. He comfortably won the first two motos and then a fall on the opening lap of race three pushed him back to the rear of the field, but he charged his way to second in a strong finish to the championship.
“I have had a great time here in New Zealand and can’t thank Josh and his JCR Yamaha crew enough for having me and allowing me to represent them in their national motocross championships,” Beaton said. “I would love to have won it for the team and the work they have done but the difference came down to some issues I had at one of the earlier rounds and the points I lost were hard to make up with just Hamish and I up the front.
“Still, I have learned a lot and it’s been awesome working with Josh. I can also say I have had enough of mud races, and I think every round we did was weather affected, but the racing has been good, and it helped me get back into the swing of things after a layoff at the end of 2023,” Beaton concluded.
Josh Coppins was grateful to Beaton for stepping in to replace the two injured Altherm JCR Yamaha-contracted MX1 riders.
“Jed was super fast and the 2024 Yamaha YZ450 was a new model for us, so we learned a lot about the bike. Our lows were too low for Jed to grab the MX1 series win but the highs were high. We need to be more consistent in order to grab those elusive three championships,” Coppins said.
Coppins thanked Australian team CDR Yamaha Monster Energy for allowing Beaton to come across to race.
“We helped him a lot for his Australian series, which he is currently leading and Jed has helped us immensely to be better for Maximus [Purvis’] return next season. We wish Jed and the CDR Yamaha Monster Energy team all the best for the remainder of his MX1 season in Australia.
Beaton will be back in action at round three of the Australian Motocross Championship in May where he is the current points leader.
