Off Road Feature

Josh Green is a name that is quickly becoming a regular at the top of the results sheets in Australian Off-Road racing.

A top junior Motocross and Enduro racer from New South Wales, Green chose to follow the path in to the Off-Road racing world when he turned senior, spending time racing domestically and internationally over the past few years.

It has been the past two years that Green has really started turning heads here in Australia, returning from a stint on the World Enduro circuit where he has some good results, Green signed on with the Active8 Yamaha team for the 2012 season and has never looked back, becoming a front running regular at the Australian Off-Road Championship and is also quickly becoming the riders to beat in the big Desert races in Australia.

Green first showed his desert racing potential at the 2012 Hattah Desert race where he finished second to Toby Price in his first attempt. He then achieved something no other Yamaha rider had for a long time over the Queens birthday long weekend in the Northern Territory when he finished 3rd at the Finke Desert race in his first attempt.

Green then headed back to Hattah for the second time in July this year and dominated the race, winning even after a final lap crash.

I caught up with Green not long after the Hattah Desert race, In fact it was just as himself and his team had made their way to W.A for this years A4DE, to find out more about more about this super talented rider.

This interview has been a long time coming and finally six weeks after I spoke to Josh I have finished typing it out! The scary part is there is a whole section on this years Hattah Desert Race that will be posted a little later!

Read below to find out how Josh got into the sport and what has bought him to where he currently is today, one of the top Off-Road racers in the country with a very big future in front of him.

Fullnoise: Hi Josh, what have you been up to the past few days since Hattah?

Green: We drove to Adelaide on the Monday after Hattah and washed up. We left Adelaide at six in the morning on Tuesday and just kept driving until we got here, it took us about 30 hours all up which was not to bad, we ended up getting here at mid day the next day!

Fullnoise: Dam that is a big effort, did the whole team travel over in the team truck?

Green:Myself and AJ had the truck with the trailer behind us, and Tom was behind us with a van and a trailer, so a bit of a road traing going on for the trip over.

Fullnoise: As you said you are on your way to W.A from Hattah and event you just won for the first time in just your second attempt! how did you pull up after the big win?

Green:Yeah pretty sore but that is to be expected (laughs), A few little blisters here and there, but nothing major which is good.

Fullnoise: Ok Lets take it back to the beginning, how old were you when you started riding and how did you get in to the sport of Off-Road racing?

Green:I started riding back when I was seven, racing some local motocross races and stuff like that. I grew up in Port Stevens which is in the Newcastle area, so I grew up riding and racing tracks, like Cessnock, Lakes and that is pretty much how it all started.

From riding local club races I progress to racing state motocross rounds, then when I was 12, I went to my first state enduro title and I loved it. I continued riding both MX and Enduro up until I was sixteen.

In 2006 it was the first year that the AORC (Australian Off Road Championship) had a junior class as part of the Australian title, so we decided to go with enduro and gave motocross away.

I still raced some local club motocross, but focused mainly on Off-Road, and it grew from there.

Fullnoise: Why the decision to move away from motocross and concentrate the Off-Road scene? Was the Off-Road something you enjoyed more, or found yourself a little more naturally talented at?

Green: I would not say that, I really enjoyed both. The main thing for us mainly due to the cost of racing for my parents and myself was that we found more value in the Enduro's.

We would go away to and Enduro race and I would be riding for six hours each day compared to going to a motocross race and being lucky to get two 30 minute motos or back then two 10 minute motos for the weekend.

Fullnoise: So it mainly came down to bike time at the end of the day?

Green: Yeah, we were spending the money and I love riding, I could ride all day every day for that reason I was enjoying it more. So I stepped and raced the full Australian Off Road Championship which was really cool.

The good thing about doing the AORC was that the senior riders were all there, you got to watch all the Pro guys race and race the same venue, I was enjoying it and I have not looked back.

Fullnoise: What were your result like back in the Junior days of racing?

Green: In that first year of the AORC I won the 250F junior Lites title back in 2006. I also won a couple of the Dirt Action Amcross series. In 2005 I think it was I finished third in the state motocross championships so I was having a bit of success in both MX and Enduro

Fullnoise: In 2007 you would have moved up in to the senior ranks, how was the transition from Junior to Senior racing?

Green: The transition was pretty good, I moved straight up in to the Pro Classes, I ended up finishing 5th in E1 that year. It was a big step up, but it was good, I was running top 15 outright and found I was doing pretty well.

In 2008 I was still racing as a privateer on KTM's and that was a really tough year for myself and my parents, we put everything in to make it and I ended up finishing 3rd in the E1 class and 7th outright and finished as the highest placed privateer.

From there I got on to the MSC Kawasaki team for 2009, and had some more success there finishing 2nd in my class at the Australian Four Day, and third in E1 again for the AORC and form there I headed over to Europe.

Fullnoise: Cool, to tell you the truth I didn't realise you had spent that much time racing in Europe.

Green: I went over and raced for Traction TM race team and I was pitted under with the Factory TM race team racing in the EJ class in the World Enduro Championships.

Fullnoise: Awesome, so the same class Matthew Phillips is currentl racing in now.

Green: Yeah, actually a lot of the riders Matty is racing against now were the riders I was racing against. I raced over there for all of 2010 and half of 2011 then there was a little bit of drama going on with the team so I came home.

I had some good results while over there, I managed a 3rd place class finish in Portugal, then picked up a 1st place in Greece and ended up 5th I think it was in the championship in 2010 and that was after missing quite a few rounds. I damaged my knee and had a few disappointing rounds that seen me finish 5th.

When I came home in 2011, it was half way through the season and just raced for fun and looked to rebuild my career. In 2012 I moved on to the Active8 Yamaha team

Fullnoise: You are still obviously with the Active8 Yamaha team now, how did that deal come about and how have you enjoyed being on the team ran by AJ Roberts.

Green: When I got back from Europe I spoke to AJ straight away and tried to sort something out for the rest of 2011, he could not do anything at that time. We kept chatting over the course of the rest of the year and for 2012 he wanted me on board as his 250 rider (E1) and I jumped at the idea.

I jumped on board with him and I have not looked back. Being on the team has been really good, I work really well with AJ, we just work and we get things done.

We work really well as a team and if things do not go right in a race, we spend all the time we can working on those things leading into the next round sorting out any issues. AJ puts so much into me and the team.

Fullnoise: Talk us through your 2013 so far, how do you feel the season has gone for you?

Green: Last year I had a pretty solid season, I finished second outright at Hattah in my first ever desert race. This year I have stepped up on to the 450 in the AORC and have had some good results. I won my first AORC round outright this year and we have built momentum at every race.

We are working on getting closer and closer to the front.

This year was my first year at Finke and I had a very successful race there and we put in a lot of preparation leading into that, so that was a huge thing for the team and also it was a huge thing for Yamaha, it had been a long time since they had been on the podium at that race. Hattah as well it has been awhile since Yamaha have one that race.

Fullnoise: You have once again been selected to race for Australia at this years International Six Day Enduro

Green: I am really pumped to go to Italy, I think it is going to be a really cool six day, a lot of the big teams in world Enduro are based in Italy so it should be a huge event.

I am excited to represent Australian and to try and get us all up there on the podium again, It should be a cool event, our bikes have already been sent and now it is just a waiting game until the day we fly out.

Fullnoise: Thanks for your time Josh, It has been a hectic couple of months, good luck for the rest of the season and I'll look forward to following your progress at the Six day again this year.

Green: Thanks

Top Image: Active8 Yamaha's Josh Green
Credit: Yamaha Australia