HQVA press release:

Husqvarna’s Factory Support racer Luke Arbon will look to send his 2015 season out with a bang when he takes on the challenge of this year’s six-round Australian Supercross Championship, which runs from October 10 to December 5.

From Gawler in South Australia, Arbon established himself as one of the rising stars of the sport in 2014, finishing third in the MX Nationals MX2 class off the back of a swashbuckling mid-season win streak where he took wins in six consecutive rounds, winning three rounds and finishing second in two.

His presence well and truly announced, the SD3 rider was expected to fight for championship honours in this year’s motocross championship but a series of illnesses and injuries including a significant concussion prevented the 22-year-old from gaining any momentum.

His most serious barrier to success however, was contracting a chronic fatigue condition known as “Leaky Gut Syndrome”, in which toxins enter the bloodstream through the stomach lining.
The condition is notoriously difficult to diagnose, and it plagued Arbon for a number of months until it was finally identified by a physician, and was treated by a combination of medication and diet.

Now feeling much stronger and more positive than he has for months, the Husqvarna FC 250 rider will take a new lease of life into the supercross championships, and is determined make the best of this – his second chance at a positive championship experience for the year.

Luke Arbon – FC 250: “I’ve been back riding now for two weeks and I’ve been pretty flat out with testing and setting up the bike and just getting back into the supercross swing of things. I’ve been loving being back on the bike and putting in the work, just like always. This year has been a real roller coaster; it started off promising after a good off-season, but then, little injuries and niggly stuff kept coming. Every time I started to get some momentum there’d be another kick in the guts. At Murray Bridge we got a second and I felt like myself again, but from there my health just kept spiralling downwards and everything added up. I was trying to train more because I couldn’t finish the races – but the more I trained, the worse I got.

The stomach issue was starting to rear its head before I even had the concussion. The tiredness started getting worse and worse to the point of being hardly able to get out of bed. I didn’t have the motivation to do anything and then I got the head knock and started feeling a bit depressed and I would try and train, but I was going for weeks where I couldn’t even make it through a whole day without a nap. That’s where I started realising something was wrong. After a lot of tests we worked out the problem. I’ve just been on like a real strict diet with no yeast or no sugar for the last month or so and a few tablets and I feel a lot better. The hardest part is finding what you can eat. You go into a health food shop to buy something and you find out it’s all full of sugar! I’ve always really loved Supercross but I think I’ve struggled to show what I can do there. I’m really looking forward to it this time. I’ve had a decent preparation time under my belt, and my mechanic working full-time with me to set the bike up. There’s no reason we can’t go out and be at the pointy end of the field.”

For more information on Husqvarna motorcycles visit www.husqvarna-motorcycles.com.