SEASON OPENER FOR BALLARD'S YAMAHA

DATE: 12-Mar-2007
 

A particularly successful showing for the Ballard’s Yamaha Off Road Team at this weekend’s opening two rounds of the Yamaha Australian Off Road Series has a number of riders sitting at the top of their respective classes in the points standings.

Aboard their all-new fleet of WRs, the seven-strong team blasted from the blocks early to set quick, consistent heat times and ensure themselves a place amongst the frontrunners.

The Hasting Valley Raceway in Port Macquarie had experienced several days of rain prior to racing, making for ideal riding conditions.

The dual-round weekend placed extra emphasis on riders finding their feet early and maintaining the momentum from heat to heat, and carrying this form into the second day and effectively, the second round.

Local favourite Chris Hollis (Pro E1) revelled in the conditions, trading heat wins with his top rivals before emerging the round one victor by around 6 seconds.

Day two proved a carbon copy of the results for Hollis, who stopped the clock this time around 30 seconds ahead of the closest competitor.

The results put Hollis at the top of the class standings and see him sitting 3rd outright in the Pro Series.

"I am pretty happy with how things panned out on the weekend, to take 2 from 2 wins to start the season is great and is a good confidence builder," said Hollis.

"The bike was working really well through all areas and the Ballard's Extreme Test was a great challenge which I really enjoyed."

Jarrod Bewley (Pro E3) left no doubt about his intentions for the 2007 season, clean-sweeping his class across both days and also claiming bragging rights at the top of the class table.

Even more encouraging for Bewley is the fact he sits in 4th outright for the Pro Series after his consistent weekend performance.

"It was a very good weekend for the team and for me personally, to win both rounds straight up is very promising and I feel that there is more speed to be found," said Bewley.

"I will be training very hard between rounds to make sure I can record back-to-back wins again at Mogo."

Shannon Lewry’s racing debut with Ballard’s Yamaha was a successful one, with two top 5 finishes on the weekend.

Saturday’s proceedings saw Lewry (Pro E2) finish 4th at the conclusion of heats, and he maintained this form to round out Sunday in 5th.

"I feel as though I put in some good laps across the weekend but there were also a few mistakes starting off," said Lewry.

"I'm still learning about the setups that will work well with the bike and by the end of Sunday I felt I had it pretty right, I will be looking for a podium finish at the next round for sure."

In the typical top form that saw her confidently claim the 2006 title, Alison Parker dominated the Women’s class from start to finish this weekend, winning every single heat, both rounds and taking the lead of the class championship.

Josh Ballard made an encouraging start to his 2007 campaign in the Expert Enduro 2 class, finishing 4th in Round 1, and climbing to 2nd in Round 2.

Team Principal and Australian Off Road legend Geoff Ballard was unstoppable in Masters, finishing minutes ahead of his closest competition on both days to take a commanding lead in his class.

Similarly Jason Cater was at the top of his game to claim weekend honours in the Veterans class.

The championship follows a similar format, with another dual-round weekend to feature across March 31 and April 1, in Mogo, New South Wales.

Another strong performance from the Ballards Yamaha team at round 5&6 of the Australian Offroad Series at Ballarat in Victoria

For this round of the Yamaha Offroad series it started off incredible dry and dusty, but shortly after the start on the Saturday showers hit the area and the conditions became trickier, but certainly a lot more ideal for this type of tough and testing championship event.

For the first time ever there were two courses set for each day, this was done to streamline the running, challenge the riders more and allow for greater rider numbers that are starting to come into this event.

In the Pro E1 class Chris Hollis again set some impressive times but had a series of falls in the slippery conditions that cost him dearly, ending up on Saturday in 3^rd spot behind Ben Grabham and Ben Kearney. Sunday looked like it was going to be Chris’s day, as he stormed around to set some great times that were up as high as 2^nd outright, but another costly fall dropped him to 2^nd on the day and just 2.4 seconds behind Kearney. He still comfortably leads the Pro E1 series with 4 firsts, a second and a third.

In the super competitive Pro E2 class, Shannon Lewry powered his WR450F to 4^th on the Saturday and 5^th on Sunday, beating riders the caliber of Kirk Hutton, the Lloyd brothers and Mark Goggin in the process, but is still searching for those precious few seconds that will elevate him back onto the podium

Jarrod Bewley again dominated the E3 pro class with wins both days (now 6 out of 6) despite a badly smashed foot midway through Saturday from a tree slamming misjudgment. This dropped Jarrod back to 4^th outright for that Rd5. He picked things up again for the Sunday to finish 3^rd overall, just 15.3seconds behind overall rd 6 winner Brad Williscroft and a close 6.3 seconds behind second place getter AJ Roberts.

Josh Ballard on the WR450F pushed hard in the Expert E2 class to finish just off the podium in 4^th for each day. He had some impressive times to occasionally beat series leader Miles Bowen, but a few crashes and stalls held him back.

Both Alison Parker and team owner Geoff Ballard again completely dominated their classes to now have 6 out of 6 wins each in this series so far.

Vets class campaigner Jason Cater aboard his WR250F rode hard, but this weekend just couldn’t beat an in form Stuart Bennett. Jason managed a creditable 2^nd outright each day in the tough Expert ranks and is still within striking range of Bennett with 2 firsts and 4 seconds in this championship chase to date.

The next event for the Ballards Yamaha team is a State Enduro round near Bathurst on 5/6^th May followed by the next major event being the Qld, Conondale rounds of the Australian Offroad Championships on May 19/20^th.

Taken from: Yamaha Motors Australia