"Everything went well, we learnt a few things and got to try a few things which sounds crazy when you are up for a NSW championship," Pickering said.

"But you are up against good riders and I want to focus on the Australian championships and make sure everything is good there so the lessons and things we tried were very important.

"We tried a few different things, some worked, some didn't but it's all written down so we know what we've got to do for the next one."

Pickering conceded that his chances of victory in the NSW Championship were limited after qualifying third and missing out on what had become the critical first and second gates in the final.

"All-in-all I felt good, it was the first time I had raced since October 1, which was my last league match in the UK," he said. "Everything felt right and it was always great to race in front of may family, friends and sponsors as their opportunities to see me race are limited.

"Hopefully I'll get the call up for Boxing Day (the Jason Crump Invitationa) as well."

The field for the Crump Invitational has not been released yet but is likely to include Pickering's fellow Hunter riders Rohan Tungate, Sam Masters and Jye Etheridge as well as the Holder brothers Jack and Chris who finished one-two in the NSW championship.

They have all been been named in the five-leg Australian series which starts in Kurri Kurri on January 4.

The Australian title field includes four former Australian champions Tungate, Masters, Chris Holder and Cowra's Brady Kurtz as well as current Australian champ Max Fricke from Victoria.

Five time Australian champion and 2012 world champion Holder joked it stung to be beaten by his younger brother Jack but it was a good start to the summer.

"Jack had a great race and we had a couple of really good battles on the night," he said. "It's a good start to the summer, everything felt good

"In practice I wrote my bike off, I did about three laps and then crashed and so we had to swap forks and do a lot of chopping and changing parts .

"The bike I crashed we got it back together, I just used some parts from my other bike and it was fine. A good first hit out."

Holder said it promised to be one of the hottest Australian championship series he had been involved in.

"You have to beat at least a couple of Australian champions to make the final and then you've got all the young boys coming through who are just so quick," he said.

"It will be a serious effort to claim it,"