Ballard’s Offroad Yamaha Motorex Team shines at First Round of the 2006 Australian Offroad Championships at Gulgong NSW.

Ballard’s team riders along with Yamaha Motors rider AJ Roberts dominated much of the competition at the first round of the 2006 Off Road Championships held over seven heats in very hot dry dusty and increasingly difficult conditions at Gulgong’s Free Flight Motorcycle complex on the 18 & 19^th of March 2006.

AJ Roberts took the Overall Outright and E2 Pro class wins, taking maximum points in five of the seven heats from young fast guy, Josh Strang and KTM Racing’s Brad Williscroft.

Pro E2 team rider, Ballard’s WR450 mounted Jarrod Bewley shone as Ballard’s best overall finisher in 6^th Outright and 4^th in the Pro E2 class. Jarrod consistently improved position over the weekend, eventually beating both better overall placed Pro E1 leaders, Ben Kearny (eventual E1 winner) and Jehi Willis in the last two heats of the weekend as well as all the E3 Pros. Jarrod has the ability to be a strong contender for a regular podium appearance as the series unfolds after finishing in front of the likes of Benny Grabham and Kirk Hutton not to mention a much longer list of Australia’s finest off road riders that were also bettered by his Pro E1 Ballard’s WR250F mounted team mate Chris Hollis.

Chris Hollis showed immense promise by bettering eventual 3^rd placed E1Pro, Shannon Lewry in the last two heats of the weekend to finish just 9 points off the E1 podium and 11^th Outright Pro.

Given Chris’s limited experience in this type of event he is certainly a rider to look out for as this series unfolds. That Chris also finished up outright in front of riders of the caliber of Glen Bell, Adam Lees, Blake Hore, the Lloyd‘s, Stu Bennett, Ryan Smart and the Cunningham boys says it all.

Perennial hard and fast Jason Cater had an excellent showing in his new class, the Over 35s Experts, not only winning the class conclusively but also the overall Expert outright position. Despite destroying a radiator on Saturday and cooking his rear brake in one heat on Sunday the “Ulladulla Wrecker” could not be bettered in the expert ranks and also finished a strong 25^th Outright against the Pros. The fact that his Ballard’s WR250F ran for almost an entire lap with no coolant did not effect its performance throughout the weekend at all, which just goes to show what an unstoppable engine the WR250 really has.

In the Woman’s ranks Alison Parker once again proved she is unstoppable on her box stock Ballard’s WR250F as she easily won her class and as usual also put in very competitive showing in the overall clubman ranks. Whilst many of the guys were wishing otherwise Alison was enjoying every minute of worsening track conditions.

Young gun Josh Ballard also impressed in the Clubman E1 class on his Ballard’s WR250F. Despite breaking his clutch lever whilst cranked over in a rut early in the first heat, which saw him back as far as 17^th in class, consistency and natural speed saw him work his way up to 3^rd in class and forth outright Clubman by the last heat on Sunday. Josh is most certainly a rider with the ability to be very competitive in future Australian and International Offroad competition.

Although still overcoming a hand injury of several months standing and a distinct lack of training team boss Geoff Ballard still made it look easy on his Ballard’s WR250F stocker comprehensively taking the win in the Over 45 Masters class. Certainly on the motocross section of the track Geoff was giving little away to even the fastest Pros and his new presence in the Master class has certainly set a new bench mark the Masters now have to aspire toward.

With three class wins, a third and two fourth placings, Ballard’s Yamaha Motorex team came away from Gulgong in good sprits for yet another strong showing at the next National Offroad round at Wodonga, Victoria in mid April. Bring it on!

Meanwhile the Ballard’s Offroad Yamaha Motorex team next appears at Rounds 1 & 2 of the NSW Senior Enduro Championships at Mogo, NSW near Batemans Bay on the 25^th & 26^th of March.