AJ Roberts – Transmoto Off-Road Editor

July 14, 2010

I got off to an awesome start at the Victorian round at the Australian Off-Road Championship in Wedderburn. The cross-country was on Saturday; it was a massive 22-minute lap. Ben Grabham got the jump on the start and I followed him through turn one into second place. Just before we crossed the start line of the timing system I just pipped him into that turn, so I was leading for a little bit, but I made a few mistakes and allowed Grabham to get back past me. Then of course Toby Price was on the hunt and got past the both of us, but the three of us really pulled away right on the first lap.

The mud and rain out there was treacherous; a lot of people had their own problems – from running out of fuel, eyesight problems, to having rear brake problems. I had the rear caliper on the disc locked up on me on the first lap, so I went from third to going nowhere fast.

But overall, the Victorian crew put on a really cool event. It took a good day of cleaning to get all the mud off the tents, clothes and bikes. It was just a real big event for the enduro guys. Now I’m back on the road and thought I would pull in and check out the Transmoto office, see the guys behind the magazine, steal all Andy Wigan’s beef jerky when he wasn’t looking and then get back on the road. It’s another eight hours until I get home, but I’m looking forward to getting back to some warmer climate, Victoria is cold!

This past AORC event was a good race. It was a great battle out there and the event went really well considering. I’m looking forward to the next round in SA, in early August. Hopefully we will have our first dry race for the year. Normally we have the problem of being too dusty but this year we haven’t had a dry event at all, so that would be nice for a change.

Now I’m going to go check out the Thor 2011 Launch, until next time.