Currently lying second outright in this year’s Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC), Husqvarna Enduro Racing Team’s Glenn Kearney is a dark horse for this year’s championship. The quietly-spoken man from Picton in NSW leads the E3 title fight, 33 points clear of the field. With a cracker of a weekend at round seven and eight at Coonawarra last weekend, MotoOnline.com.au caught with ‘GK’ to find out how his weekend was.

Image: Russell Colvin.

Glenn, well done on a positive weekend; two round wins in the E3 class and third outright on both days. Can you sum up your weekend from your point of view?

Yeah, I’m really happy! I’ve had a good weekend, really solid. In round seven was a really solid third Outright, I think I was near the lead for a fair bit, there was a second between the three of us (Daniel Milner and Toby Price) for a while until I threw the bike down towards the end of the day and paid the price for it. Third Outright is good points for the championship: I lost two points to Toby, but I have moved into second place overall. In round eight, I really enjoyed the back track, which was quite rough. But it took me most of the day to come to grips with the tight pine track. Greeny (Josh Green) and I battled all day, backward and forwards and it came down to the last test where there was just half a second between us and I ended up getting him by 1.7s in the end to finish up third for the overall round. So it was good points again and just really happy to come out unscathed. The Husqvarna FE 501 performed well all weekend, the Husqvarna Enduro Racing Team did a fantastic job this weekend, so yeah I’m looking forward to the next round.

Well for the next round we head back to Kyogle in NSW, which counts as your home round. Have you ridden there before?

Yeah, it’s a grass track up there normally and quite hilly. I’ve ridden there quite a lot in the past, so I’m looking forward to it that’s for sure.

So what’s next on the calendar for yourself?

Next event for us will be Hattah on the first weekend of July.

Image: Russell Colvin.

Right. So what sort of training have you been doing for Hattah then?

Hattah has actually worked very well with this AORC round at Coonawarra with it being so sandy – Hattah is a sand race of course. So for the last probably month, six weeks has all been about sand riding, a lot of sand testing and that kind of stuff to get ready for Hattah. The hardest transition will be going from the sand back to the hard pack base. It will be quick 12-day turnaround between Hattah and the next round of the AORC, but I’m sure we will get it done.

With four rounds to go in this year’s championship, the E3 title is looking the goods at the moment for you to walk away with. Are you quietly confident you can get the job done?

Yeah, racing is racing. Anything can happen, so we won’t count our chickens before they hatch. I’ll just keep focusing on the Outright championship which I have been doing all year and let the E3 take care of itself. You know, if I do the right thing in the outright championship, I’m getting the job done in the E3. My main focus is to try and stay on the podium in the Outright and fight for the death!

That’s a good outlook Glenn. All the best at Hattah, and will see you at Kyogle in a few weeks time.

No worries, cheers for that!