Husqvarna Australia Off-Road team leader Lachlan Stanford has powered off to a strong start in the Yamaha Australian Off Road Championship opener at Rawson, leaving the venue in south-eastern Victoria with a share of outright second place, in the nation‰Ûªs premier off-road championship.
Stanford fired his powerful Husqvarna FE 501 to his highest cross-country result - third outright in Saturday‰Ûªs XC behind Daniel Milner and Lyndon Snodgrass, and then repeating the dose on Sunday as he shared the sprint round podium with Milner and Josh Green.
Sunday‰Ûªs performance also moved Stanford into a share of the E3 class lead.
‰ÛÏIt was definitely a good kickoff," Stanford declared. "I got a PB in the cross country, and for racing in Victoria too, because down here isn‰Ûªt always nice to me. Saturday was pretty tough; I tried to catch the KTM boys, but I just didn‰Ûªt have it in me.
"The sprints today were alright, but I had two crashes and the times were tight that just messed me up. I only missed second by 0.5 of a second from Greeny, so it could‰Ûªve easily been better. That‰Ûªs a little frustrating, but my bike was great for the whole weekend.
"It was tight and technical so you‰Ûªd expect a 500 to make it harder, but the FE 501 worked really well. The team was awesome, the fuel stop was so fast I didn‰Ûªt have time to get a drink, and Amy was great on the pit board as well. It was a good weekend - I really enjoy the team and Broc as a team mate. Everything‰Ûªs working really good this year," Stanford concluded.
