21-year-old Husqvarna mounted AJ Roberts has won the both the first and second round of the 2005 Yamaha National Off‰ÛÒRoad Series when the series made its long awaited debut at Raymond Terrace near Newcastle, NSW, over the ANZAC Day long weekend (April 23 -24).
Promoters Dirtbike promotions presented a tight and technical track in the natural terrain bush section, with the last part of the course being run on the Raymond Terrace motocross track. Special test times were just under the ten-minute mark with a trail loop of approximately 15 minutes.
Roberts was in blistering form around the loop and on the way to a 16 second win gathered 3 of the 4 heat wins on offer in Saturday's opening round ahead of Pro Rider KTM's Brad Williscroft, Williscroft taking the heat Roberts didn't win.
Williscroft's campaign didn't get off to the best start after a crash in the first heat cost the NSW Champion 14 seconds. E1 rider Damien Smith (Ballards Yamaha) was third with 2004 Australian Safari winner Jamie Cunningham holding off Kirk Hutton for fourth.
"This season is just getting better and better," said Roberts. "The weekend was fantastic for Husqvarna and me. It was an unreal track; I don‰Ûªt think the promoters could have done a better job. It had everything and it definitely wasn‰Ûªt easy; it was technical, tight and fast. It had a bit of everything for us."
Sunday's second round got of to a shaky start for Roberts as Williscroft hit back with the opening heat win, but the Queenslander re-grouped to take the following three heat wins to earn the outright honors by a healthy 17.2 seconds. Smith was once again by far the fastest E1 rider and it showed in the overall result as well with him taking his second podium result. Glenn Hoffmann Racing's Jamie Cunningham's result looking a little poorer than it probably should have after the former Finke winner spent a good 30 seconds stuck in a tree.
As you would expect the outright front runners dominated their respective classes, Damien Smith taking the double in the E1 class with former 4 Day Champion Ben Grabham (Glenn Hoffmann Racing - Honda) coming second followed by Chris Hollis. Day two saw Grabham and Hollis swap positions.
Outright winner on both days AJ Roberts obviously cleaned house in the E2 class with Williscroft and Cunningham following the Queenslander home on each occasion.
Husaberg Australia's Adam Lees and Motorex KTM all rounder Stuart Bennett swapped wins in round 1 and 2 respectively in the big bore E3 class. Gas Gas gun Craig Douglas punted his EC300 to third on day one and a second on day two.
The evergreen Geoff Ballard AM, cleaned up both rounds in the Expert Vets class whilst Alison Parker repeated her Ballards racing team boss's efforts by winning both rounds of the womens class.
Overall all riders gave the new series a resounding thumbs up and all commented on the level of competition.
"You just can‰Ûªt afford to make a mistake," said AJ. "You just have to put your head down and go for it but at the same time you can‰Ûªt be going to over the top as it can all come undone pretty quickly. "The competition is really tough and it shows in the results. TO win by such small margins after racing for so long shows that I‰Ûªll have to be on my toes all year, if I‰Ûªm going to win, but one advantage I do have is riding the Husqvarna WR250. The bike is just awesome".
The next Australian Championship Round for the pacesetter is the weekend (21 st & 22 nd May) held at Gilgandra ‰ÛÒ Central West of NSW.
Main Photo: AJ Roberts (File Photo)
Credit: Husqvarna Australia
