Beau Ralston has just been announced as the second rider on the Active8 Yamaha off-road team alongside Josh Green in a huge boost for the former motocross racer who’s reveling in his switch from moto tracks to the bush trails. MotoOnline.com.au spoke to Ralston after a busy day of testing with team owner AJ Roberts in Queensland to find out how everything’s going.

Image: FourOhFour.

Great work signing with Active8 Yamaha for 2015 mate. It hasn’t come as much of a surprise after your tie-in with them last year, but how does it feel to land a ride with a solid team?

Yeah, it feels great mate. I signed the deal a couple of weeks before Christmas and I’ll be racing a YZ450 in the Enduro-X, the E2 class in the AORC and also the Finke and Hattah desert races. I’ve been working hard for a lot of years and felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere, but now this is a weight off the shoulders and I can focus on winning races rather than paying the bills, buying parts and trying to make ends meet. I can just worry about getting myself ready each week now.

This time last year you were entering your first off-road season as a full privateer. Man, a lot can change in 12 months!

This time last year it didn’t look like I was going to be riding at all. The weekend before the second round of the Enduro-X, Graeme Boyd Motorcycles lent me a 450 so I could try it out. I’d watched the first round in Brisbane on YouTube and I thought ‘I could do that’. The feedback from the first round was the track was too easy, so the organisers amped up the track in Sydney. During the track walk, I got to the first gnarly rock section and I turned to my mechanic mate and said ‘there’s no way I can ride a bike through this’. We almost packed up and went home! I’m glad I stuck it out though. After the Melbourne round where I got second behind Brownie, AJ Roberts called me and offered to help me out with a bike and to get around last year. It was a bit of a struggle all year, really. I kept hitting trees and by the halfway point of the season I’d already broken four knuckles, then two weeks before Finke I fractured my elbow. At the end of the year I was healed up 100 percent and started to get some good results, win some tests and get on the podium. The past year has been a huge learning curve, that’s for sure.

Why did you decide to leave the motocross track and head off-road?

I had a daughter, Jada, at the end of 2012 and I thought, man, I could work the rest of my life or go hard with my riding for 10 years. I decided to put a big effort into the 2013 motocross season, but it was just injury after injury. I’d bought a second-hand race bike off eBay and ran top five in a lot of races, but didn’t get any support. I’d pretty much given up and was going to just work when Graeme Boyd stepped in with the bike to race Enduro-X.

Image: FourOhFour.

The switch has revitalised your career too, hasn’t it?

Absolutely. Well, I don’t think it was the switch to off-road that revitalised it, it was the people around me and being in the right space to do well. AJ is so influential and our attitudes and personalities just click. He knows how to get the best out of me and I think that’s been the big difference.

What’s the one thing that you like most about off-road racing?

I love how it’s really chilled out and race days aren’t as full on as they are in motocross. Everyone – the riders, teams and the industry – are all mates on race day, then we ride bikes together. I think racing against the clock makes a big difference, as no-one is taking each other out or rubbing plastic.

What are your aims this year?

Everyone has goals that they want for themselves, but I just want to have fun and work as hard as I can. If I work hard during the week then have fun on race day, the results will come and reflect that, for sure. I already feel a hundred times more prepared than this time last year and hopefully that will show in my results.

Excellent, thanks Beau. All the best for the Enduro-X opener at Brisbane.

Thanks mate. Speak to you soon.