Active8 Yamaha’s Beau Ralston has been selected to represent Yamaha in the E3 division for 2016 aboard a purpose-built big-bore WR480F machine.

A former motocross racer, Ralston has progressed quickly in the off-road world and established himself as a major player in 2015 when he won the E2 division at the Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) and was a member of the world championship winning Australian ISDE team.

“Things have been going really well since I started doing the off-road races and it’s been a continuous climb since day one, but I’m loving it,” Ralston said. “Each year I face new challenges and set new goals and so far, with the help of the Active8 Yamaha team, I have been able to achieve those. Now in 2016 I have the responsibility of racing an all new bike in E3 and trying to secure another national championship for Yamaha.”

Ralston started off his season on a positive note, taking second at the opening round of the Queensland Enduro Series behind teammate Josh Green and gaining valuable seat time on his WR480F in a racing environment.

“It’s always good to get a race under your belt before the first national event of the year just to ensure your testing and training are on the right track,” he added. “The Queensland round showed things are progressing well and the race bike proved to be very effective in those conditions.

“The new WR450F is a great platform for us to build a 480 and the extra power is noticeable but doesn’t have any major effect on the handling so I have the best of both worlds now with a super powerful bike that can still be agile enough to get around in the tight stuff.”

Ralston along with the Active8 Yamaha will finalise their preparations in the coming weeks and get ready to go when the first round of the Australian Off-Road Championship kicks off on 19-20 March at Kilkivan in Queensland.