HQVA press release:

There was cause for double celebration at the weekends seventh and eighth rounds of the Australian Off-Road Championships at Aratula, as Husqvarna Enduro Racing Team Manager Glenn Kearney registered his strongest ride yet in this year’s series, and Lachy Stanford locked away his third consecutive Queensland Enduro Championship.

Still adapting to the limitations of a fused right ankle after he had reconstructive surgery over the off-season, Kearney and his Husqvarna FE 501 were in scintillating form on Saturday, registering fourth position outright, and second in the E3 class behind the weekend’s outright winner of both days, Toby Price.

Short special tests placed maximum pressure on riders to be as consistent as they were fast, and a slip-up in the first special test of the day meant that Kearney could not replicate yesterday’s heroics on the outright scoreboard, and he was forced to accept ninth overall and third in class for today.

Lachlan Stanford’s smooth, fast style aboard the Husqvarna FE 350 would pay dividends in Queensland, as the Byron Bay rider got to work in familiar terrain, taking a podium finish in the hotly contested E2 class on Saturday, followed by fourth in class today. Stanford registered sixth and seventh outright positions over the two days, and also wrapped up his third consecutive Queensland Enduro Championship, which was held in conjunction with the AORC round.

Husqvarna support rider Scott Keegan was sixth in the E2 class on both days, cracking the top 10 outright today on his Husqvarna FE 350. In the Junior 4 class Brisbane’s Fraser Higlett maintained his points lead in the championship, finishing second to rival Ben Kearns yesterday before turning the tables today to equalise the point situation heading into the next round at Kyogle in New South Wales.

Husqvarna Enduro Racing Team Manager Glenn Kearney (FE501): “Overall I’m happy with the weekend. Lachy rode well yesterday and was third in class and sixth outright. Today he was seventh outright and I think just 0.2 of a second in front of me.It was disappointing to be ninth today after coming fourth yesterday, but with such short tests and any sort of mistake was just amplified and if you lost a chunk of five or 10 seconds, it was unachievable to get it back. My second in class yesterday is the best class result I’ve had this year so I’m on the improve, and that’s good.
I got some really good test times here, and again today I had a couple of third outrights in tests, so I was happy to get back to the pointy end at least in some of them. I think where I was losing time was in the rear braking skid turns, of which there were a heap in the grass track tests. With the little bit of prep that we had with this new setup, I think we did quite well, so we should be in a much better position for the next one.”

Lachy Stanford (FE350): “It was pretty fun here, the track was good. The racing was really tight because the tests were short so that made for an interesting weekend. I got through with not many mistakes, and had heaps of fun. I’ve got a little bit more to do on my pace to get faster and make that next step and I’m feeling better than I have been, so I’m pretty happy with my weekend. My fastest test was the first one, but my favourite was probably the real tight one at the end. In and out of little gullies and the tight turns, the 350 just felt really nice in there. It was the perfect size all weekend. I also wrapped up the Queensland championship for the third year running too, winning all three rounds at Kilkivan, Mt. Perry and Aratula.”

Fraser Higlett (FE250): “It was a good weekend; I struggled a little bit yesterday with trying to get my intensity levels up with the enduro format. You want to be consistent and stay on time in the trail sections, but then you also want to go hard for the special tests in between. I ended up, as I was rolling around the trail sections, trying to picture what I was going to be doing in the special tests, and that sort of worked for me. It was a good venue; it was rough, but fun, and doing big days was good. There haven’t been many AORC rounds that have been that tight so it was a bit of a change, hitting trees as you go through them.”

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