Enduro Feature

A few weeks back at the 2013 Hattah Desert race we caught up with Multi time Aussie Off-Road Champion and Actice8 Yamalube team Manager AJ Roberts to find out a little more on his racing career.

The Off-Road / Enduro World is something that has really captured my attention over the past couple of years and even more so recently after attending and taking part at some of the big national events.

While I am familiar with the back ground of most of Australia's top motocross riders, I was intrigued about how some of Australia's top Enduro riders and Team Managers have ended up where they are.

I had the opportunity to catch up with one of the most approachable and friendly Riders / Team Managers in the Off-Road Paddock in AJ Roberts during the Friday night street part that kicks off the three big days of the Hattah event.

Read below as we chat to the 30 year old who hails from the Northern Territory about his racing career, what lead him down the Off-Road / Enduro racing path and what it is like to be the manager of one of the number one teams in Australian Off-Road Racing.

Fullnoise: Ok AJ, lets take it rough back to the start, at what age did you start riding and how did it all come about?

AJ: I grew up on a farm, my grandpa my dad, they were all in to riding bikes. As with most kids it all started on push bikes and once I had that going, by the time I was 3-4 years old I got my first bike, a QR50 and progressed from there.

Then one day we went racing for the first time, when I was about five I think and it just started the whole family progression in to the racing side of things.

I spent 18 years up there in Darwin living in the wild country. As soon as I got my licence I was out of there and I left and went racing around the east coast of Australia and ended up in Queensland. The Queenslander's adopted me and I went on from there.

Fullnoise: Have you always been in to the Off/Road Enduro scene or did your start off in Motocross and make the move to Enduro?

AJ: I guess growing up in Darwin and living on the farm we rode both Motocross and Enduro. For myself growing up neither really stood out, where I lived we had the junior club and senior club it was that simple.

The senior riders rode in the bush, while the juniors rode on a motocross track and that is how it was. Also in Darwin there it the big race called the Kamfari, you had to be a senior to race that event. So since the day I was allowed, from about the age of eight, I would go out and walk the Kamfari track, every year religiously.

I spent my junior years watching all the top riders race it and the ambition was always to race the Kamfari. I guess in a sense that was the first enduro race that I always wanted to get to.

Back in the day the rules were kind of not there and I was allowed to race the event for the first time when I was 15 on a KX100 and everything just evolved form there.

I have always raced both MX and Enduro, I raced the Junior Motocross Champs back in the day right up until I was 16. I raced against Jay Marmont, Quinton Carroll, the Metcalfe's all those guys are from my era. They were bloody good riders!

Growing up in Darwin made it hard on me, as I got older, coming out of 60cc, those guys became leaps and bounds ahead of me and it was just one of those things.

Once I got out of Darwin and set myself up on the East Coast, I started racing a lot of other events and learning about races like the Australian Four Day, and the Australian Safari.

I raced the Safari for the first time when I was seventeen, I was the youngest rider to ever ride that race and finish it. Colin Jennings from the Enduro Commission said I should race the 4 day to get selected for the International Six Day Enduro and I said what is the four day?!

I was actually pretty naive about the whole enduro scene even by the age of 17, so really racing the Australian Safari was my first step in to big Enduro / Off-Road racing world.

Fullnoise: There is no doubt that you certainly took the ball and ran with it once you settle in to the Off-Road World, run us through some of your achievements and some of the big races you have done throughout your career to date.

AJ: There has been a few! Kamfari was my first, winning that was pretty cool for me, I was the youngest rider to ever win that event at age 16. Then I finished second in the 400 class at the Australian Safari in my first attempt.

Before that I did win two junior motocross titles on 50s, I would not call that an achievement in itself, at that age you are so young, you are just riding a bike as far as you are concerned and it just sort of happens. But at the same time it is still a important and a major factor on where I progressed to.

The biggest thing for me was winning three straight Australian Off-Road Championships outright in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Hattah has always been a special race for me, on debut I got second behind Warren Smart in 2008. On the second attempt I fried a clutch then my third attempt which was last year (2012) I got third outright, there are some good memories there.

I have been overseas and done a lot of World Enduro rounds, and also to the United States and raced a lot of GNCC races they were all pretty cool. I think my best results were a couple of 5th place finishes at rounds of the World Championships in the E1 class. Just travelling the world racing bikes, it is what it is all about I think.

Fullnoise: You have recently moved from being one of Australia's best riders and a career traveling the world, to now owning and managing your own race team while continuing to race.

AJ: How did the whole Active8 Yamalube Yamaha team come about?

It was one of those things the just started basically. Then to build the team in to what it is becoming, I realised I had to evolve more people to make it bigger and better and make it grow. Having a team is all about exposure.

Racing by yourself if you have a bad day, you have nothing pretty much no exposure. Having a team around you full of good people and good riders, If you personally have a bad day, but one of the other team members has a good day, it helps to promote all your sponsors who put in so much effort and make it possible to go racing.

The costs are not that much more in a sense. You are already going racing. Yes there are more bikes and more parts, but it is no more travel, there is not any more accommodation and things like that.

I just started to make a plan and slowly build on it. It has been a progression and we have some really cool riders on the team, they are young, keen and motivated and I can only hope that I can teach them enough to let them progress on their own and start to evolve themselves.

Fullnoise:The riders you have at the moment are certainly doing that for you, you have young Josh Green who is putting up some big results and and also Tom McCormack who is a young up and coming rider.

AJ: Going in to Hattah this year Green is one of the favorites, he got second behind Toby (Price) here on debut, it is unfortunate Toby is not racing due to his injuries, but there is some big riders here like Ben Townley who is an unknown and then the regulars like the Smith brothers, Smarty, Grabham, Hollis is here to have another crack.

Editors Note: The Following two days after conducting this interview Josh Green went on to dominate the 2013 Hattah Desert race winning both the prologue on Saturday and the 4 hour 8 lap race on Sunday.

Fullnoise: Where do you want to go with the team next, how do you see things progressing.

AJ: It is like anything, what makes it work is funding, it is crucial to what we do, the more funding we have the more development we can do and the more parts we can get our hands on and continue to build on it and that is what we are doing, slowly progressing each year.

Yamaha have been a big part of our progression, without them we would not even have the bikes. It is cool to grow each year and have some great sponsors on board that really make it happen for us and allow us to have the talented riders we have who can knuckle in and put the effort in and get the results we need.

At the end of the day that is what it is about, you need the results and our riders understand that. The good thing with our riders is they are hear not because they have to get the results, they are here because they want the results themselves. It is just part and parcel of racing.

Fullnoise:You have your two team riders heading to the international Six Day Enduro later this year, Will you also be heading over for this years event, an event you have represented Australian in quite a few times in the past.

AJ: I am not racing myself, but both Tom and Josh have been selected, so it is pretty cool to have our whole team essentially going. Though I don't think I will be able to head over myself.

The boys want me to go, but sometimes they just need to do things on their own.

Fullnoise: One last quick one, tell us a little about the bike you have been racing this year, you are on a Yamaha YZ250 two stroke with a big bore kit in it, how did that come about and how are you enjoying racing the big bore two stroke?

AJ: For me, I had been on four strokes since 2006 and I was like why not do something different. Yamaha have a wicked YZ250 two stroke, and I was like lets race one in the E3 class. There was a kit out there for it so I was like why not! I was a bit dubious about it all, but we slapped that bad boy on and it is an animal.

It is quite exciting to ride, it can be a handful but it is quite incredible how good the overall package is. It is a two stroke it vibrates a lot and the memories are coming back of why the four-strokes are pretty good (laughs). I am enjoying it and it is something to mix it up bit.

Fullnoise: Thanks for taking the time to speak to us and let us get to know you a little better. Good luck for this weekend and for the rest of the season.

AJ: Thanks.

Top Image: AJ Roberts with his 2013 Hattah desert race bike, which he unfortunately could not ride this year due to injury
Credit: Aaryn Minerds