Great start to the 2019 Australian Off road Championship (AORC) for the Yamaha Mxstore Ballards Offroad Team at Murphy Creek near Toowoomba, QLD. The drought is still well lingering supplying extremely dusty conditions for the competitors over the weekend. The sprit-formatted tracks for the opening rounds were technical and the deteriorated fast!

Jess Gardiner racing in the Women’s category set out on fire on her 2019 Yamaha WR250F for round 1 were she took a clean sweep of test wins until the final test where she had a small fall in the final test of the day. The test was around 14 minutes long and with the QLD humidity and thirty-six degrees Celsius, it made for a long hot dry dusty day of racing. Jess spoke, “I am really happy to come out on top today, winning 4 out of the 5 tests and taking the round 1 win overall. You never know after the off season where your sitting and if your training and hard work has paid off enough, so glad to get the nerves out of the way’.

Jeremy Carpentier commences his 2nd year under the Yamaha Mxstore Ballards Offroad Team and has decided to make the transition from the Pro E1 category stepping up to the Pro E2 category to race the brand new 2019 Yamaha WR450F. Jeremy had his best results yet in the AORC riding a different sprint track to Jess on the Saturday. Jeremy took home a nice 3rd place in the Pro E2 class and claimed 8th outright. Jeremy said, “ I had a couple of silly little crashes today as our track was quite technical and the terrain turned to dust powder really quickly. I really love the new Wr450F and felt very comfortable out on the track, making progress every test.

Going into the Sunday both Jess and Jeremy switched race tracks for the day, both riders started on a destroyed track from the day before, which set the physical aspect of racing high from the first sprint.

Jess had another blitzing day taking all the 3 out of 3 test wins before the day was then cancelled due to safety for dust concerns and the track not being able to

cope anymore, this come about from most riders informing officials of their concerns. Jess takes a double victory home from QLD and will now leads the Australian Offroad Championship by 10 points over Emma Milesevic and Ebony Neilson. Jess quoted, “ I am so thankful for my Promoto Suspension for soaking up all the bumps and holes out there, in really made getting through todays track so much easier!”

Jeremy had a better day today finishing further up the ladder for 7th outright and again a solid 3rd in the Pro E2 class after Daniel Milner and Josh Green respectively. Jeremy had a small crash in the last test which knocked him back a position outright although an overall fantastic start to the 2019 season opener!

The Yamaha Mxstore Ballards Offroad Team will be at Rnd 3/ 4 of the NSW State Championships on the 23rd and 24th of March at Nowra Complex. The next round of the AORC (Rnd 3 and 4) will be at Dungog, NSW on the 6th and 7th of April.

Until then follow Jess and Jeremy on social media to keep up to date. @missjessgardiner
@jeremycarpentier44

All photos: Please give photo credit to John Pearson.