HQVA press release:

Three of Husqvarna Australia’s most promising young riders have been recognised to participate in Motorcycling Australia’s inaugural Elite Performance Academy (EPA) squad for 2015.

The squad is an invitation-only affair, and just 15 riders have been named across the road race, motocross, enduro and speedway/dirt-track disciplines, to participate in the first phase of the program on the Gold Coast from June 12-14, 2015.

Husqvarna’s young guns who caught the eye of selectors were New South Wales motocrosser rider Riley Dukes, Queensland enduro racer Fraser Higlett and dirt tracker Billy Van Eerde, also from Queensland.

The program is coordinated MA high-performance coaches Tim Cole, Wayne Maxwell and Stephen Gall, to help propel riders towards the world stage by the time they reach the age of 18, and is modelled along the lines of the CAMS Academy Driver Development Program.

The squad was selected by some of the most respected names in their various branches of motorcycle racing, including Jason Crump (speedway), Paul Caslick (dirt track), Bernie Hatton (road race), and Stephen Gall (motocross and enduro).

From the original 15 invitees a squad of eight will be selected and developed over a three-year pathway, which will aim to attract further funding from the Australian Sports Commission and enable grants to be made available with which to propel graduates towards overseas testing opportunities.

The initial EPA squad for 2015 is: Rhys Budd (NSW, Motocross), Mitchell Evans (Qld Motocross), Riley Dukes (NSW, Motocross), Fraser Higlett (Qld, Enduro), Ben Kearns (NSW, Enduro), Wil Ruprecht (NSW, Enduro), Michael Driscoll (NSW, Enduro), Jaimon Lidsey (Vic, Speedway), Brody Eves (Qld, Speedway), Max Whale (Qld, Dirt Track), Billy Van Eerde (Qld, Dirt Track), Broc Pearson (Qld, Road Race), Tom Edwards (NSW, Road Race), Nicholas Liminton (SA, Road Race), Lachlan Taylor (Qld, Road Race).

Tim Cole – Program Coordinator – “Earlier on MA sort of used a shotgun blast type of mass education, which was fine when motorcycle racers knew a bit less, but nowadays everyone’s got trainers and we’ve sort of moved past the point where you eat fast food the night before a race. This new approach is sort of bringing us up to spec with other sports and the rationale behind it is to create rounded athletes, who have spent three years being developed. We want them to come out of the program by about 18 or 19, which is really about the time – if they’re going to go and compete in world championships – that they need to go. We want them to be physiologically well-trained, we want them to be psychologically really resilient and robust, and technically we want their fundamentals to be broad and sound, so a team manager or a coach or whoever it is, can start with a good base and then turn them into a motocross rider or a road racer or whatever it is.
We’ve gone for probably the best 14 to 16-year-olds in the country, with equal representation in all disciplines, and then what we do is psychologically profile them, physically test them, and have a look at them. What we’ve got is a standardised 125cc four-stroke motorcycle so that all riders are on the same bike. We put them on an underpowered motorcycle because there a little technical deficiency causes a big issue. You’ve got to be technically quite good to get them to go fast. And we just throw them on different circuits and see who adapts quickly.”

Billy Van Eerde – “I’m pretty excited about it. I know some people that are going like Mitch Evans and that, and I’m nervous, because if you make the top eight, you get to go on another camp. And I want to get into the top eight. It’ll be fun.”

Riley Dukes – “I’m very excited about it, very honoured to be selected too. I know that we’ll learn about the mental and physical sides of motocross, nutrition and everything like that, which I’m interested in learning about. It’s going to be exciting to compete with everybody in all the different types of motorcycle sport. It’s going to be different.”

Fraser Higlett: “It was a bit of a shock when I found out! I didn’t think I was that good but obviously I made it. I know a few of the enduro kids, but not many of the others, so it will be good to meet them. I’m pretty excited about having access to those facilities and stuff, it’s not every day you get access to stuff like that and get the chance to be around those sort of people.”

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