At the opening rounds of the Queensland Off Road Championship and the Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship, held near Toowoomba on 23-24 Feb, Kirk Hutton once again blitzed the Masters class aboard his YZ450F – with the boys both landing on the podium on their new YZ65s.
It was a journey that started out when Kirk met Canadian competitor Leigh Lalonde at the 2002 ISDE. Leigh was dubbed the Ice Queen because of her speedway ice racing skills – and Hutton was known as King Kirk, so it was a royal match.
Hutton and Leigh moved out of Brisbane to a 300 acre property to start coaching enduro – something that at the time was not available. Then Harley was born and became immediately obsessed with motorcycles. “I din’t push him, he just wanted to ride everywhere with me, bikes are in his blood,” explains Kirk, who bought a PW50 when Harley turned two. Kirk gave up coaching enduro riders and started coaching Harley. It wasn’t long before Harley – who was too young to race enduro – competed in MX races at Kilcoy.
Drake arrived two years behind Harley and inherited Harley’s PW50 – then every one of Harley’s bikes became Drake’s in due course. Drake is equally bike mad. “The biggest fun I have is riding around the yard with the boys,” says Kirk. “I never force them or get them to ride faster, we only ride to have fun. Riding is the first thing they want to do when they get out of school. They play a bit of soccer but bikes are the first thing on their minds,” he explains.
At the end of 2019 at a Queensland Junior Enduro Development event Harley placed second and Drake – on his first race using gears – finished fourth. Kirk knew then that there was a potential to all ride toegther at an enduro event in his home state. The podium finish added an unimaginable level of satisfaction: “This has been on of the highlights of my career,” claims Hutton, who is a multi-Australian and Queensland Enduro championship winner with 10 International Six Days Enduro individual gold medals. “Definitely one of those proud dad monents. Just to be able to race together is unbelieveable. But to all finish on the podium is like a fairytale. I’ve been in the game a long time and this has rekindled my passion for racing. It’s like a dream come true,” continues Yamaha rider Hutton who has been with the bLU cRU for 21 years.
“At nine Harley is only just old enough to race the Yamaha AORC. I was so proud of his results this weekend in the 9-12 years Junior 65cc class, finishing a strong second both days on his all-new YZ65,” says Kirk. The boy who placed first is 12-years-old. “Drake also landed on the podium both days competing in the Queensland champs. It’s so amazing to see how Yamahas can out-perform across all mediums and age brackets too, the bikes didn’t miss a beat and were very fast,” adds Hutton.
Harley was particularly impressed with the junior track and the club’s organisation of the event.
“I had the best time,” Harley said. “Racing with my dad and my brother for the first time. The track was awesome, it was so much fun! My lap times got faster as the race went on and I learned a lot from watching dad race too, he races just like me!”
Harley is looking forward to a full racing calendar on the YZ65 in 2019, and is preparing to contest all Queensland off-road/Enduro and many club motocross events.
“The Hutton family is a great example of Yamaha’s step-up strategy. Not only is there an aspirational element featuring father/son/brother but also model progression from PW50 to YZ65 and up to dad’s YZ450F,” explains YMA Marketing and Sales Manager Matt Ferry. “Not every family will end up in the VictorYZone like the Huttons, but it’s cetainly a fun journey that we ecourage all our off road customers to experience,” he explains.