Husqvarna Racing team rider Glenn Kearney finished fourth in last weekend’s Japan National Cross-Country following an invitation from the event organiser.

The JNCC race was the last race of the championship and very popular with riders due the 3 hour Cross-Country format, similar to the American GNCC events.

Kearney started in third place and made his move into the lead, building a 53 second gap over second place after the first lap before troubled lapped riders caused havoc for the Australian.

“I had a good race. The lap was very short, around 10-12 minutes to cover just over six kilometres,” said Kearney. “The track was very technical and rocky with three very tough hills. Once the hills were covered with lappers it was almost impossible to get through them.”

Kearney says he was unable to carry his momentum up the hills due to lapped riders being directly in his path, causing many falls and an eventual drop back to fourth in the standings.

“I could not use momentum to get up the hills and that is when I started going backwards,” he added.” I had no choice but to paddle my way up the hills and many times I fell over. Eventually I dropped back and got passed for 3rd position on the final lap while I was stuck on a hill, finishing in 4th only 6 seconds behind 3rd place.”

“It was a very tough race and my speed was good, but the Japanese guys were good in the technical rocky sections. The Husqvarna Japan team is a great bunch of people and it was a blast to ride for them.”