The 2016 Australian Off-road Championship (AORC) kicked off over the weekend in Kilkivan, QLD. The weather was very humid and dusty which catered for a challenging weekend racing the heat.

Jess Gardiner took on the weekend on board her Yamaha
Motor Australia WR250F. With Jess only 2 weeks and 2
days post surgery heading into this weekend her main goal
was to stay strong and focused on finishing the days, to score some valuable points towards the 2016 Championship hunt.

Gardiner undertook what is considered the ‘Mumford procedure’ via keyhole surgery on the 2/3/16. This procedure involved the removal of about a cm worth part of the clavicle which was the re-broken piece, whilst rounding off the new end of the clavicle to conclude the surgery.

“I felt really confident going in to the weekend. I knew in my head, my surgeon, my physiotherapist and I had done everything right to prepare for this weekend. My goal going into this was to finish and stay within the points contention”.
Gardiner geared up and conquered Round 1 on her new WR50F adapting extremely well to her new Yamaha Motorcycle. Gardiner finished 4th at Round 1.

The Following day at round 2, with a very tender shoulder Jess pushed hard to come back strong finishing a well deserved 2nd place for Round 2 with her times easing back to the pace.

“I woke up a little tender on Sunday morning, I started to get a lot of confidence back with my shoulder on what I was capable of doing and not doing being so soon after surgery. During Round 2, my test times had picked up dramatically and I am very happy with the outcome of this weekend, especially thinking back 2 weeks prior that I was going to be unable to race.”
“I am more motivated than ever after 3 months off the bike and coming back to a new bike – I am ready to dedicate everything and see what can evolve at Round 3/4 in 3 weeks time!”

“ I would like to give a special thank you to my continuing and new sponsors for remaining faithful and upmost supportive in the recent difficult time of Injury, I will do everything I can to continue coming back stronger”.

Gardiner’s next race will be Round 3/4 of the AORC at Portland, NSW on the 9th And 10th of April