Yamaha MXstore Ballard’s Offroad Team press release:

Last weekend the Yamaha MXstore Ballard’s Offroad Team went 12 hours west to a property just near Broken Hill for Round 7 of the Australian Offroad Championships (AORC).

This round is something very different to what we normally see in the AORC being a desert round included into the series.

The weather didn’t give the riders the best welcome with howling winds and dust storms throughout the whole weekend making it challenging. Nearly no one was seen without motorcycle goggles all weekend and Jeremy and Jess were rocking the Oakley goggles to avoid the dust.

Both Jess and Jeremy completed the Prologue on Saturday for the start order ready for the 4hour cross-country desert race. Jeremy prologued 5th outright and Jess started 40th outright (2nd in the ladies to Emelie Karlsson).

The main race was held on Sunday; thankfully the wind stayed strong which helped blow the dust away for all the riders out on the track. The race commenced with 30-second gaps between the riders again to avoid the dust.

Jess and Jeremy were both feeling comfortable on their respective Yamaha WR250F and WR450F as they come into the event a lot more prepared then at this same event last year. The team was equipped with steering dampeners from
MXstore to help in the high-speed sections.

Ian from Promoto suspension had also worked his magic to setup great sand suspension for the duo.

Jess raced 6 laps of the 27km lap, in the early stages of the cross country she caught and passed Emelie Karlsson for the lead, during her fuel stop see noticed not long after Emma Milesvic was also hot on her tail.

Emma passed Jess about halfway during the race to take the lead for her first ever AORC win. Jess finished a respective 2nd place followed by Emelie Karlsson. Jess quoted, “ I’m really happy with my results this weekend, to be fair I was expecting worse as high speed desert racing is really not my thing and I prefer technical real Enduro any
day.

Although I’m really thankful to many great sponsors for helping prepare an overall much better desert style race setup on my WR250F. I had nothing for Emma in those high speed sections and have a lot of respect for her great riding on the weekend!”

Jeremy raced 9 laps of the 27 km lap, starting out in 5th position heading into the race; he rode strong and solid in the dusty conditions. The top end of the field were reaching lapped riders already on their 2nd lap around the track making more challenges for them to adhere to on the way. Jeremy dropped back a little to battle with 7th place, although with the smaller fuel tank then the other competitors he had to make one extra fuel stop.

He rode a strong finish to ride in a great battle finishing in 9th outright and 3rd in the Pro E2 class. Jeremy explained, “ This is something so different to what I am used to in Europe and even here in Australia now, it was quite sketchy with the dust and high speed sections.

I’m happy to bring home another podium position and most of all to have survived this crazy race. Thank you to everyone involved to improve our bike setups for this style of race and my WR450F did not miss a beat.

The team is very thankful to be supported by FunnelWeb Air filters as this weekends conditions would not have been the same without the protection from these filters!

A special mention to Steve from S&R Caravan Solutions for staying to help Pit crew for both Jess and Jeremy, during the race.

Thank you to all sponsors involved to allow the Yamaha MXstore Ballard’s Offroad Team the opportunity to be very competitive.

The next race for the Yamaha MXstore Ballard’s Offroad Team will be a local round of NSW state championships held at Appin Motorcycle Complex on the 24/25th August.

Keep up to date via their social media channels until then!
@missjessgardiner
@jeremycarpentier44