The opening rounds of the Australian Off-road championship (AORC) were held at

Golden beach, Victoria over the weekend. The Yamaha MXstore Ballard’s Off-road Team

(YMBOT) were amongst the pointy end of the action after nearly a year since the last

off-road race!

There were well over 300 riders entered to contend for the Australian championship

round positions, despite the dusty and challenging conditions. Golden Beach was set in

the thick of the yellow sand and black powder sand, to produce some of the toughest

tracks for the opening rounds of AORC racing.

Danielle Mcdonald led the team by charge on Saturday morning racing the Junior cross

country, for 2 hours! In fine form on her YZ125 she battled with young gun motocross

racer, Taylor Thompson early in the race. Danielle had to push hard to come back to the

lead after a first lap crash. Danielle and Taylor changed positions several times before

Danielle took charge and pulled a solid lead. Danielle claimed the Rnd 1 victory in the

Junior girl’s class and finished 14th overall with all the Juniors on track! Building

momentum, she continued to battle for the top step of the podium for Rnd 2 with

Taylor Thompson in the sprints! Danielle took the win by 11.6 seconds over Taylor for

Rnd 2 and another exceptional 14th outright with the stacked Junior field.

The senior competitor’s cross-country format was changed to ‘super sprints’ due to the

dusty conditions and amount of senior riders on the track at one time. A super sprint is a

really long sprint lap (22km long=approx. 27 minutes).

Jeremy Carpentier rode his WR450F on the rough track unfortunately taking a solid fall

making it difficult to stay with his main competitors for Rnd 1. Jeremy finished a solid

13th outright and 7th in Pro E2. Determined to bounce back for Rnd 2 Jeremy battled

with Stykes and Driscoll all day to finish an exceptional 8th outright and 4th in the Pro E2

class. Jeremy mentioned, “After coming back from a recent popped out shoulder injury,

I was unsure where I would be at for the opening rounds. All in all, I am happy to be

here riding in the tough conditions and am looking forward to another gap in the offroad

calendar to come back even stronger. I have a lot to take away from this weekend

and am looking forward to the next rounds”.

Jess Gardiner lead the women’s class by storm at Rnd 1 in the super sprints, winning

both sprint laps to take the overall win! Jess finished 57th outright with 151 seniors on

the track!

For rnd 2 in the sprints on Sunday, Jess was still in dominating form winning the first 3

sprints in the women’s class! Unfortunately, Jess went down hard in the 4th sprint losing

a bit of time as she nursed herself back to the pits! Jess knew she had some damage

although being still in the lead after the 4th sprint she mentally couldn’t justify not

attempting the last 2 sprints. Jess did what she had to get taped up and trial rode the

5th and 6th sprint to salvage valuable championship points. Jess finished 3rd for Rnd 2.

This now leaves Jess as runner up in the Championship with 2 points down from Emma

Milesevic.

We caught up with Jess on Monday afternoon to know what the damage was. Jess’

doctors have confirmed she has a broken left scapula and is now in full recovery mode

to be back for the next rounds! Jess explained, “It was an emotional weekend for me

with so many highs and lows. I was riding so strong after a long time off; it was

rewarding after the training I put into the lead up to this event. Normally sand isn’t my

favourite terrain, with training I proved I can be strong in the sand too! Unfortunately, I

crashed hard in the 4th sprint, as soon as I rode in, I knew that I had broken my scapula.

I didn’t want to believe it as much as my body told me to stop, I forced myself back on

my WR250F to score that podium spot I deserved.

I am now in full recovery mode to get back 100%. I have a lot of positives to take away

from this weekend and I won’t let this small bump on the road stop my momentum

from building”.

The next rounds of the AORC will be in July at Kyogle, NSW.

The whole YMBOT crew would like to thank all their partners for being a part of their

race program and look forward to many more successful events on the horizon.

The Yamaha MXstore Ballard’s Off-road Team will be present at the 2nd round of the

East coast MX championship on the 9th of May at Maitland, NSW.

To keep up to date throughout the year of the team, press releases will be published on

www.jessgardiner.com.au, along with the busy race calendar. Find the team on social

media: www.Instagram.com/yamahamxstoreballardsoffroad

Keep up to date with the athletes via their social media pages for live training and race

news.

Jessica Gardiner:

FB/ Instagram: @missjessgardiner

Jeremy Carpentier:

FB/ Instagram: @jeremycarpentier44

Photo Credit : Foremost Media