The Husqvarna Enduro Racing Team has begun 2015 in the successful style it established in its debut year, with American guest rider Mike Brown bolting out of the gates to take an early lead in the Enduro-X Nationals, at the series opener in Brisbane.

The popular Enduro-X format pits off-road racers against each other and the clock around a specially constructed course of natural and man-made obstacles, and the Californian endurocross specialist flat-out dominated proceedings at Archerfield Speedway, winning his heats, setting the fastest qualifying lap and winning the overall from Josh Green and Toby Price.

The FE 350 rider galloped to comfortable wins in the first and second heats, then took a safe second to Price in the third heat to ensure he would take the championship lead to Sydney Dragway in three weeks time.

With team manager Glenn Kearney relegated to a sideline management stance as he recovers from ankle surgery, it was left to Lachy Stanford to campaign the team’s other FE 350, and he duly made it two official Husqvarna entries into the final series.

In only his second taste of Enduro-X Nationals action though, the Byron Bay ace made it through the tough way, recovering from poor starts to force an entry into the finals with a well-ridden second place in the Last Chance qualifier, before finishing 11th on the night.

The next round of the Enduro-X Nationals takes place at Sydney Dragway on 28 February.

Husqvarna Enduro Racing team manager Glenn Kearney (FE501): “It was really good. Browny was solid, right from practice, it was pretty obvious that he was not just on the pace, but a few seconds quicker than most of the boys. It’s plain to see that he is dedicated to enduro-cross, when he can upstage world-class riders. Really impressive, and both of our riders made the final, which in racing like this is tough to do, so Lachy did well. He went through the Last Chance and rode like he can ride. He got pushed around a little bit in the other races so we’ll work on some starts between now and the next one. But he showed plenty of promise and I wasn’t too worried about him sustaining an injury that might affect his year. I like what he did, and when Browny’s up front like that it makes everyone pretty happy.”

Lachy Stanford (FE350): “I couldn’t get off the start line tonight, but I’ll just take the positives from it and learn and take it into the next one. I felt I had the pace of the track and I felt really good, but I just made some mistakes and when I did I’d go back, so I’ve got some things to work on. The best thing tonight was that I just stayed pretty smooth, when I was getting clean laps my times weren’t too bad. We’ll be alright by Sydney.”

Mike Brown (FE350): “It’s been good all day, right from practice and heat races. I won all those and got the hot lap, and just kept it going. That last race I knew that I could just position myself to get the overall. Toby rode good in that third one and I thought I would just finish off a good weekend with an overall win and not a crash. All these guys have got other stuff to do, but I’ve just been on enduro cross since last year without stopping. The last two weeks I’ve been back in California training for this, and I’m going back tomorrow for testing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and then back at it again here in Sydney.”

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