HATTAH: PIN-YOUR-EARS-BACK BIKE TESTING

Over the past decade, Josh Green has arguably been the Hattah Desert Race’s most consistent performer. In seven Hattah campaigns, the Shop Yamaha Pro rider has notched up one memorable win (in 2013) and six podiums. That’s a damn impressive record when you consider that Hattah is widely regarded as Australia’s most demanding off-road race; a four-hour motocross on one of the world’s roughest, bike-swallowing sand tracks.

Of course, that sort of consistency doesn’t just happen by chance. Repeat success at Hattah requires a fit-as-f#@k rider, the right race strategy, a slick support crew in your corner, and a race bike that dialled to suit this brutal race’s particular demands. Which is why the serious frontrunners routinely head out to the sandy conditions in northwest Victoria for some bike set-up sessions weeks or even months ahead of the event.

This cool five-minute video – craftily shot and edited by legendary 6HD lensman, Ben McNulty, offers a fascinating fly-on-the-wall perspective of the Shop Yamaha team’s test sessions a month out from this year’s early-July Hattah Desert Race. As we sat down to watch it with Josh Green, we pressed him for a top-line insight on various topics. Here’s what he had to say about each…

HATTAH – THE RACE ITSELF…

“The most demanding race in Australia, for sure! Basically, it’s a flat-out, four-hour motocross on what quickly degenerates into the roughest sand track you’ll ever see.”

THE TEAM’S PREP THIS YEAR…

“This year, the entire team headed out to the Mildura area a month prior to the race to test some new settings on our race bikes. For the Finke Desert Race, top guys will often go out there and pre-run the track several times during the year, mainly so they can learn the 230km-long track. But there’s no use doing that at Hattah because you can’t ride the Hattah track itself until the race weekend. We’re lucky to know some local crew with properties that are nearby that have really similar terrain, so that gives us a really good idea of where we’re at with the race bike set-up and our speed.”

RACE BIKE SET-UP FOR HATTAH…

“It’s a special race that demands a special race bike set-up – if you want to be a chance for a podium, that is. Basically, we run a motocross-spec motor with heaps of grunt and really tall gearing (like 15/46, because the average speed is 75-80km/h) with an MX-type suspension set-up with a firmer fork because you’re carrying more fuel with the oversize tank and slamming big bumps at high speed. Then there’s a few other mods we make – such as steering dampers and Steg Pegz to help take some load off your arms. Mate, my 2021 race bike barks. It’s so fast, I can’t even ride it wedged most of the time!”

YOUR PRE-RACE CRASH…

“This year, because of all the shit going with Covid and border closures, we got there earlier than usual. Which was great as it gave me the chance to go race one of the Victorian state off-road rounds, and then do a bunch more riding on the Hattah race bike where we’d tested a month before that. Even though I was hitting that same jump at 140 clicks, I’d hit it literally hundreds of times and never had an issue. But that one time – which was caught on video

– I landed in ‘perfectly’ in a braking bump and it just ejected me in an instant. There was nothing I could do about it. It gave me a few hairline fractures in my pelvis, and I did some damage to the tendons and ligaments in the area. Plus, I bruised the shit out of my hand and rung my bell pretty good. But, all things considered, I was pretty lucky really.”

THE TEAM’S RACE RESULTS…

“Well, I didn’t race this year’s Hattah because of my injuries. Michael Driscoll got caught out by a snap lockdown and was put in quarantine, so he didn’t race either. Blake Hollis then got the opportunity to race my 450. He ran second in the Under 19 class and 11^th Outright. And Max Purvis jumped on Driscoll’s race bike. He was on it and running third Outright, but then busted the gearshift lever off in a crash at the three-hour mark and ended up DNF’ing. Kyron Bacon did really well at his first Hattah by winning the 250cc class and running 12^th Outright. 

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