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.

Go to: Yamaha Motors Australia