HQVA press release:

With its long and proud tradition in off-road racing, and history of nurturing emerging racers locally, it should come as no surprise that Husqvarna is well placed with its quality of junior riders – a point proven as this year’s Australian Off-Road Championship concluded at Omeo, over the weekend.

Seventeen-year-old Brisbane schoolboy Fraser Higlett’s reputation as one of Husqvarna’s – and Australian off-road racing’s – brightest prospects has been building for a while now, and stepping onto the Husqvarna TE 250 suited his aggressive style noticeably.

In the 2017 AORC, last year’s top-20 performer suddenly and dramatically arrived into the outright top ten, and at the finale at Omeo he went within an ace of taking out the Transmoto Enduro Junior Championship.

Higlett’s series started slowly when choppy conditions at the opener at Rawson in Victoria saw his hands blister badly enough to require super glue to close them, and he dropped to sixth in class on the Sunday.

He revealed his true potential over the next two rounds, however, firing his Husqvarna TE 250 to double wins across Miva (Queensland) and Renmark (SA) rounds, on each occasion bagging a seventh and a sixth-place outright finish.

He shared wins with title rival Michael Driscoll at the penultimate round at Kyogle, and needed to win at Omeo, but despite his best efforts could only manage 2, 3 for the weekend, missing out on the title by a scant three points.

In the Enduro Junior 4 class for 15-year-olds, the Moto Hub Enduro Team’s dynamic duo of Josh and Mitchell Brierley shared more podiums than you can shake a stick at.

Husqvarna FE 250-mounted Josh and TC 125 rider Mitch finished first and second respectively, with Josh the class of the field after taking nine wins and a second place.

Also Moto Hub-backed, Matthew Pye kept up the team’s presence in the Enduro Junior 3 class, powering his Husqvarna TC 125 to third in the championship, behind Jayden Rudd and Ned Chapman.

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

Fraser Higlett (TE250): “I saw some great results throughout the year, that I’ll probably take into next year, and I’m really happy with that. Omeo was awesome, but it didn’t work in my favour. I don’t know whether it was nerves, but it’s something I need to work on, and I’ll take something out of this for sure. It’s a disappointment coming so close, but it’s not the end of the world.

It was good to race Michael. We’re good mates at the track, and we both know that we’re up there now, even in outright standings. I was happy with the moves forward I made in the outright standings – as the season went on my goals changed from just wanting to go good in Under 19s, to wanting to be good outright. It was cool to be up there with everyone else. The TE 250 has been really good this year, and helped me learn a fair bit, I’ve really liked it.”