A weekend after the ninth and tenth round of the Australian Off-Road Championship, Yamaha’s Jess Gardiner was at again, this time at the Yeppoon Motocross track in Central Queensland for the third running of the JRT Yeppoon Enduro-X.

The 2016 JRT Yeppoon Enduro-X, which was held by the Keppel Coast Dirt Bike Club put on what was a spectacular days’ worth of racing with some healthy prize money thrown in there for good measures.

The 1100 meter JRT Yeppoon Enduro-X course wasn’t your usual Enduro-X layout, as it was a 50/50 with a bit of the motocross track being used as well as the Enduro-X track.

In total 630 meters of the motocross track was used, made up with 570 meters of the Enduro-X which had the typical stuff you would see on an Enduro-X track, such as logs, rocks and tyres.

In front of almost 1000 race going fans, Gardiner showed a master-class display in all of the three four lap races, which saw her setting her best lap time in race three with a 2min07.980, and in the process picking up a $700 prize cheque for her hard work.

Just to add to her three race victories also came a win in the ladies shootout, which saw the 23-year- old claiming the top honours with a time of 2min12.473 and another $500 to add to her $700.

“It has been brilliant to come out here and race at the Yeppoon Enduro-X this weekend,” said Gardiner.

“I take my hat off to the organisers in what they have done here in regards to the track and the show itself. The racing across all the classes has been fantastic and really close. It seems like everyone involved have really enjoyed themselves which is great to see.”

Gardiner was also pleased to see the amount of girls racing at the Yeppoon Enduro-X, where in total there were seven.

“To have a good turnout of girls racing the Enduro-X was really good to see. It shows that the sport is growing and hopefully it can grow even more for next year.”

Not only was Gardiner racing in the Women’s class, she also mixed it up with the pro class, giving some of the men a run for their money.

With an 11-12-13 result Gardiner managed to finish twelfth overall out of a total of fifteen riders with twenty-seven points on the board.

“It certainly was good to mix it up with the pro riders,” expressed Gardiner. “Obviously I’m nowhere near the same speed as the front runners, however it was good to mix it up with the back end of the pro guys.”

“The support I got from the crowd was simply amazing. They were always cheering me along which was really cool.”

“In closing I would like to thank the Keppel Coast Dirt Bike Club and especially Paul Warr for all their help and supporting us to get up to Yeppoon for the event. It’s simply been fantastic.”

Gardiner will now turn her attention to this weekend’s Women’s Motocross Nationals, which takes place at Coolum in Queensland.

Photo: Troy Pears