HQVA press release:

Husqvarna racer Damian Smith has added yet another Australian enduro title to his glittering career tally, winning the Veterans category at this year’s Australian four-day enduro championship, which concluded today at Wynyard in Tasmania.

Despite being a year into his ‘retirement’, Smith showed no signs of having slowed down, winning the championship by more than 10 minutes ahead of Brandon Kienhuis and Ben Lindsay.

His wasn’t the only Husqvarna podium, with Byron Bay racer and Queensland enduro champion Lachy Stanford taking an impressive podium in the highly competitive E2 category, behind outright winner and defending champion Daniel Milner, and former AORC champion Chris Hollis.

This year riding the nimble yet punchy Husqvarna FE 350, the Husqvarna Enduro Racing Team rider made a giant step forward, having finished sixth in the same class at last year’s event.

Team Manager Glenn Kearney (Husqvarna FE 501) just missed out on a 4-day podium for 2015 when he finished fourth in an incredibly hotly contested E3 category, behind former World Enduro Champion Matthew Phillips, Daniel Sanders and current AORC champion Toby Price.

Kearney’s efforts weren’t wasted however, as he helped the Husqvarna trade team of himself, Stanford and Smith to a podium result in the Trade Teams classification behind KTM and Yamaha.

Husqvarna Enduro Racing Team Manager Glenn Kearney (FE501): “It was a good event; run really well with some fun trails, a lot of variety and a lot of fresh trail as well, which made it quite enjoyable. It was a good event for us – Lachy finished third in E2 which was a really competitive class, and then I missed the podium in E3 which is a bit disappointing, but it was a pretty competitive class, with Matthew Phillips, Chucky Sanders and Toby Price. Lachy was seventh outright, I was ninth and Damo just destroyed the over 35s! I had a solid four days, although I had one bad test on Day Two and ran off the track and got stuck in some rubbish and lost 42 seconds to the leader which kind of put a damper on things. I felt like I rode quite well in the wet conditions. The race ran smoothly for us – Christian did all the bikes and we had Dave and Kevvie on board running around as well as Lachy’s fiancée Amy out getting times so we had a fairly small crew but it worked great. Our trade team got third as well, which was a great way to finish.”

Lachy Stanford (FE350): “It was great to come down to Tasmania for a race, I’ve never been in before and the countryside is nice and the people are good. It was a good fun event with plenty of test time and lots of variation. My four-day was a little up and down, third in E2 and seventh outright was an okay result for the field I was battling against – with people like Philips, Milner, Price, and Sanders there are some very fast, accomplished riders there. I wanted to get into that top five outright – I know I’m fast enough so it’s disappointing not to be able to prove it but it’s still good to have people that faster race against. My 350 was unstoppable, just awesome power and the setup was good. It was great hanging out with the Husqvarna Enduro Racing Team for a couple of weeks down here. There was a big crew of us and we had a heap of fun. Jeff Leisk came down for a visit too so it was good to catch up with him.”

Damo Smith (FE350): “I’ve got 10 or so of these now but this one feels pretty awesome. I was always going to ride the four-day, but I just came along and did a little bit of prep with the guys and it came out pretty good. I started off well, and then unfortunately Kirk, my main rival, hurt himself on day one, so it was a pretty comfortable run from there on. I rode the 350 FE again -Christian and the boys again put together a good little package for me and it helped me heaps – for me is probably one of the nicest bikes to ride. It’s easy to ride, it’s got a fair bit of power, but not too much. Perfect when you haven’t been doing too much all year!”

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