15 Nov 2011

Ballard’s Yamaha racers Matt Phillips and Josh Ballard dominated a 140-strong field at the recent 2011 Tasmanian Endurance Rider’s Club (TERC) Yamaha Oldina 8-hour race, held in the lush forest region of Tasmania’s northwest coast. 

Phillips, 18, from Wynyard (TAS) also laid down the fastest lap time of the day, at 21-minutes, 42-seconds.

“It was such a fun race,” Phillips said. “You could ride in teams of three, two or solo. The points worked better if you went solo, but I chose to ride with Josh because it was a team race and the Ballards were excited about coming down for it.

“Josh and I went lap for lap, so we’d do our 20-minute moto, then swap over.

“We lead from the start to the finish. We were both on YZ450F’s, they definitely seemed like the right bike to be on. 

“The track was really good, a mix big down hills and up hills, tight stuff: there was a section of about one kilometer that was taped off wide so you had to pick your own line to the end.

“Then there were river crossings with cool bridges to get over them, and some hard-packed clay soil and loam as well.

“I do as many of the Tasmanian races as my schedule allows, this is the second enduro in TAS I’ve got to do this year.

“It would be great to have a Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) round here in Tasmania.

“As we proved at the 8-hour, we have a strong following of enduro riders down here and great terrain, the tracks are world class.”

Geoff Ballard and Derek Grundy finished the race fourth, just six-seconds behind third.

The next event for the Ballard’s Off-Road Team will be the Wild Wood Rock extreme event, being held November 20th just outside Melbourne.

Phillips will contest the race with new teammates, Daniel Milner (from Lang Lang, VIC) and Stefan Merriman (Nelson Bay, NSW).

Phillips has recently re-signed with the Ballard’s Off-Road Team to compete aboard a new, fuel injected WR450F in the 2012 season.

He said he wouldn’t be taking any time off between seasons, and would be heading to the United States on January 4th to contest selected rounds of the World Off-Road Championship Series (WORCS) and to watch the Anaheim 1 Supercross. 

Full results from the race can be found at http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=732739

For more information on Yamaha please visit http://www.yamaha-motor.com.au/

ENDS