Yamaha Motor Australia:

It was another workmanlike performance from the Active8 Yamalube Yamaha duo of Josh Green and Beau Ralston at rounds five and six of the Australian Off-road Championship, held at Wanbi, South Australia.

The South Australian rounds made for a huge shift in riding terrain with the hard pack surfaces of the east coast rounds swapped for the deep sands of SA. Round five on Saturday saw the riders compete in the Cross Country format completing 10 laps in just over two and a half hours racing, non-stop, while Sunday switched a Sprint Racing format. Green continues to dominate the E1 category on his WR250F, while Ralston leads the E2 division on his YZ450F.

Josh Green is proving unstoppable on the new WR250F in season 2015 and again posted a double round victory. Green laid to waste his competition in the E1 class and posted two top five finishes Outright over the weekend. The deep, horsepower robbing sand made it hard work for the smaller capacity machines, but Green showed both he and his WR250F were more than up to the task.

“The sand was a lot thicker and deeper than what we were expecting and it certainly made us work hard to get the results. The bike handled the weekend perfectly as it took a pounding getting it through the sand,” Green explains.

“The only thing I would have liked would have been a paddle style rear tyre to help get up on the sand but we have learnt from it and if we return, we will have it sorted. “All up, not a bad weekend. It would have been nice to finish a little higher Outright but this terrain certainly suited the bigger bikes and it showed in the results,” Green ends.

Beau Ralston continues to lead the E2 class and sit inside the top five Outright despite a tough weekend in South Australia. Ralston struggled to find his best form in the sand and crashed a few times throughout the weekend on his way to a top three finish in the E2 division. Ralston took third both days on his YZ450F in class and was sixth Outright both Saturday and Sunday.

“It was a tough weekend for me on a surface that isn’t my favourite. I felt a bit better on Sunday and was making up some time, but I fell a couple of times and lost all my momentum. “Still, I’m healthy and running well in the points chase, so I look forward to the next round and hopefully can make up a few points I missed here in South Australia.”

Team Manager, AJ Roberts, was content after the weekend but also knows that his riders need to keep pushing in the coming rounds. “The boys were thereabouts all weekend and if we had of ran a paddle style rear tyre like some of the other teams, we may have been closer again. I wasn’t expecting the sand to be as thick and deep as it was but I will ensure we are better prepared next time we come here.

“Both riders are fit and healthy which is always a challenge this time of year so I’m confident we can rebound from this round well and step it up a notch in the coming rounds,” he ends.

Rounds seven and eight of the Australian Off Road Championship will be at Aratula in Queensland, just one hour west of Brisbane. It’s a home town race for the Active8 Yamalube Yamaha team with the team based on Brisbane’s Northside.