News 27 Jun 2017

Podium streak continues for Husqvarna man Standford

HQVA press release:

Husqvarna Off-Road Team lead rider Lachlan Stanford continued his podium streak in the E3 class of the Australian Off-Road Championship, in extremely challenging conditions at Renmark, SA.

In nasty bulldust that hung in the air or lay concealing shapes in the track surface, Stanford took his growling Husqvarna FE 501 to second in class on both days, behind KTM’s Lyndon Snodgrass.

The two are now locked in a fierce arm-wrestle for big-bore class supremacy with four rounds of the championship yet to run.

Stanford was fifth overall in the company of Australia’s fastest off-road racers on Saturday after the intended cross-country round was changed to a ‘Super Sprint’ amid safety concerns, and stepped that up to fourth on Sunday after longer exposure to the extremely tricky environment.

At the other end of the Husqvarna tent, Broc Grabham started poorly and found himself often at the mercy of the fortunes of the rider ahead (and that rider’s dust cloud).

Grabham finished fifth and sixth in the E2 class, and could only look ahead to the next AORC stop at Kyogle, where he hopes some more enduro-style terrain will play into his hands.

Husqvarna Off-Road Team’s entry in the Transmoto 19 and Under category, 17-year-old Fraser Higlett revelled in the conditions, roosting his Husqvarna TE250 to his second double class win in as many rounds.

The Brisbane rider again landed well inside the top ten overall, taking sixth and then seventh for the weekend, with times that, on both days, would have won him the E1 class!

For more information on Husqvarna motorcycles visit www.husqvarna-motorcycles.com

Husqvarna Enduro Racing Team Manager Christian Horwood: “A very sandy, rough, dusty weekend. I feel sorry for the club because they did a fantastic job marking out a great challenging track. It was hard for the riders; especially with the shorter intervals meaning that every rider from second place back had to contend with dust at some point and I know both of our guys, during different points in the lap, could not race at full pace because of vision issues! Lachy improved as the weekend went on, and was a lot closer to Daniel on the last lap, it was just a shame we didn’t have more race time. Broc struggled with the conditions and wasn’t prepared to take the risks. We made a lot of changes as a team to try to improve his speed, but from the top-six back it was fairly tight, so if you gave away a little it cost you a lot. Fraser was very impressive, winning the class both days and with a very impressive outright result in each case. He’s showing that the two-stroke Husky is more than competitive in the outright standings in a variety of conditions. The mechanics did a great job here in the conditions they were working with, changing filters every lap, and our bikes ran faultlessly.”

Lachy Stanford (FE501): “The dust was pretty tough this weekend. There was no way they could have run a cross-country, so we had a sprint on Saturday and only did three laps on Sunday. I struggled a lot on Saturday, and couldn’t find a groove, but Sunday was a little bit better. It was just really rough and dusty and a pretty techo track. Today though I started to find a few more seconds and some flow. The bike was awesome – I just need to get it up front and be battling for that win. Not the best weekend for the E3 championship; taking two seconds to Lyndon was a pain. We’re just going to have to pull the finger out I guess. The next one is at Kyogle so that will give me a bit of a home track advantage, hopefully.”

Broc Grabham (FE450): “It was a very frustrating weekend again for me. On Saturday I had an okay first lap apart from a small drop a few corners in, where I got going fairly quick. But then, whoever would start in front of me would seem to have a drama and I’d just get dusted by them the whole way and lose 20+ seconds per lap! I’m looking forward to Kyogle; all these rounds so far have been the fast, hang-it-all-out tracks, that suit the motocross guys or those who push their limits, whereas I’m one of those guys that likes a more technical track. Kyogle is more like proper enduro terrain, so I’m looking forward to getting some decent results there. Even with 30-second gaps I still got to sections and had to stop until I could see where the track was going, so I didn’t head-butt a tree or something. It wasn’t much fun and it wasn’t much like racing. It’s more just following the dust.”

Fraser Higlett (TC250): “Sixth and seventh for me. The TE 250 loved the track and it was good just to be able to keep on it all day. I liked the track and I seemed to go well on it. The bike ran perfectly all day. It’s pretty crazy to think I would have won E1. It was good to find out that I’m good on those tracks, so we’ll see how I go at Hattah next. I’m not sure where the championship lies. In the first two rounds, my hands just fell apart, so Michael Driscoll got a few points on me there. He got third today so I would have got a couple of points on him, but we’ll see. We’re going to stay in Mildura now for two weeks before Hattah and do some riding!”

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