Craig Dack’s CDR Yamaha team is quickly getting up to speed with the off-road discipline. Image: Adam Riemann.

Long-time Yamaha Motocross and Supercross team owner Craig Dack is enjoying the new experience of heading up the factory’s off-road effort as the team adjusts to a vastly-different discipline.

2013 marks Dack’s 21st year at the helm of the factory outfit, but just his first as part of the off-road program after Geoff Ballard departed the brand at the end of 2012.

In recent history CDR Yamaha’s primary efforts have focused on the performance of the open class YZ450F, and the addition of off-road racing brings two new bikes in the YZ250F and WR450F, campaigned by Daniel Milner and Stefan Merriman respectively.

Following the opening four rounds, Dack said he was pleased with how smoothly the riders and team were gelling in the early stages.

“It was very quiet for us,” Dack said following last weekend’s third and fourth rounds at Goomburra, featuring the Enduro format for the first time in 2013.

“Being an Enduro, the mechanics can’t touch the bikes, so once the riders leave park ferme in the morning, they are on their own and we didn’t have much to do. It was quite funny, actually – all new experiences for us.

“I couldn’t be happier with the smoothness of operation of the team and the support from Yamaha has been fantastic. We are very happy with our two riders, Stefan and Daniel. They have been fantastic to work with.

“We do need to work a little bit on speed. We are a bit down on pace, especially from the KTM guys, so we will be working hard on getting the speed a little higher.

“Apart from that we have had no mechanical issues whatsoever and it is very early days – it’s only our second weekend of off-road racing as a team. We just need to build and get stronger and stronger as the year goes on and for the future.”

At the Goomburra property in Queensland on the weekend, Milner took the E1 class win on Saturday but was slowed by two crashes in the rocky Enduro tests on the Sunday.

Teammate Merriman was fifth in the E2 class and eighth Outright aboard the WR450F.

The next dual-round event, rounds five and six, will be held at Corner Inlet in Victoria from 25-26 May.