The Yamaha MXstore Ballard’s Off-road Team (YMBOT) was in true form at Dungog
NSW over the weekend for Round 3/4 of the Australian Off-road Championships
(AORC). The team were well prepared for the true Enduro time card formatted
event, which seen the senior riders cover approx. 7 hours of ride time!
Jeremy Carpentier tackled the course first from the team, piloting his WR450F
around a grass track special test followed by single tracks for trial time and an
enduro test to finish the loop. The conditions were perfect for the first two laps of
racing, although the rain settled in from about 11am for the remainder of the day
making the course very slippery.
Round 3 started the riders early ready for a big day. Jeremy mixed it up with the top
boys all weekend to finish a rewarding 10th place outright and 5th in the heated E2
category. Jeremy stated, « I’m much happier with my riding this weekend, my fitness
was perfect as I had time to build it back up after the first two rounds! I still have
speed to pick up and I’m really looking forward to a little gap now to work on this
ready for the next rounds! My bike didn’t miss a beat all day and it was a lot of fun
riding with everyone before the rain come down».
Jess Gardiner continued to excel in the Women’s category as she took 6 out of 8 test
wins for round 3 and the overall win by 42 seconds over Emelie Karlsson! This was
Gardiners 3rd consecutive win this season on board her WR250F. Jess was smart
when the rain come in from her years of experience and made sure to keep the bike
upright and make a clean run to the finish line. Jess finished 48th overall (with all
the guys/girls entered in the event).
Jess said, ” I had an overall good day of racing, I had a few hiccups and some silly
moments in the tests but managed to keep it all together and score another valuable
win in the Ladies category. It was really fun the first two laps until the rain settled in
and things turned interesting really quick! “
Danielle McDonald is the little rocket of the team after undergoing challenging
conditions from the word go, as the juniors started later in the day with the rain
already settled in. Danielle and Ariana Collins battled all day in the mud and slippery
conditions to complete 5 special tests! Danielle clinched her 3rd consecutive win in
the junior girls class by 4.8 seconds over nearest competitor Ariana! We are starting
to see a great pattern here between Jess and Danielle recording some great history.
The team could not be more proud!
Danielle commented, “ I was really nervous going into this weekend with the Enduro
format as I got lost in it last year. The team really helped me to understand and I
stayed on my time card all day. I wasn’t sure how I did in the special tests because it
was really slippery and we had a delay in receiving our times but really happy to
discover that I won the day! “.
Unfortunately due to heavy rain fall over night Round 4 that should of taken place
on Sunday was cancelled. The Dungog MCC did an exceptional job hosting another
brilliant Enduro time carded event, despite the weather conditions where they had
to take in consideration the riders safety and respect for the land owners and
forestry.
The next event for the Yamaha MXstore Ballard’s Off-road Team will be the King of
MX Qualifier round at Wagga Wagga in 2 weeks. The next AORC round will be at
Nowra on the 18th/19th of May.
Keep up to date via the athletes and team social media pages
@missjessgardiner
@jeremycarpentier44
@yamahamxstoreballardsoffroad