27 tmoto p024 pic 4day by Transmoto

5 d ay s o f

sport 2012 A4DE

Deep in Victoria’s picturesque Warragul region, iKapture Images’ Greg Smith spent five hectic days hunting down Australia’s best off-road racers. His mission? To showcase the Australian 4-Day Enduro like never before. This is the pick of his enduring images. andy wigan

ikapture images

s a motocross racer, how do you define a long, tough day? Getting lapped? Running out of tear-offs? Bending your trick new fat bars? Being unceremoniously peppered with roost and copping a few welts? Okay, no one’s suggesting that motocross is a mincer’s game, but whatever the torment, at least motocross riders can take solace in the fact it’ll only last for 30 minutes. For off-road racers, a tough day takes on a completely different, more relentless complexion. Whether they’re carrying a physical injury, nursing an ailing machine or struggling with a bike set-up that doesn’t suit the conditions, enduro racers can be up against adversity for seven or eight hours a day. At an event like the Australian 4-Day Enduro, they not only do it for four days in a row; they’re

also obliged to cover around 250km each day, plus perform all their own mechanical work and tyre changes. And all for what? A slap on the back and a finisher’s medallion the size of a 50-cent piece! Admittedly, Australia’s elite-level racers stand to take home more than a small medal if they win the 4-Day, but the fact remains that off-road racing tends to attract the die-hard purists of the dirt bike world; guys who do it for the love of the sport and the satisfaction of getting through it. Alive! Riders were never under the illusion that this year’s 4-Day would be any easier than any of its 34 predecessors. Organisers sang the same old tune about the 2012 event being “doable for the average trailrider, but still varied and challenging for the fast guys”, but a quick recce of the course soon reassured entrants that it would be no cake-walk. With

Victoria’s Warragul region experiencing the wettest winter in 53 years, there was no risk of a repeat of the dusty conditions that plagued the Warragul-based 4-Days in 2004 and 2008, but the sodden terrain in 2012 brought with it a whole raft of fresh challenges. With a combination of long transport sections, sweeping grasstracks and super-tight enduro tests, bike set-up would be a best-guess compromise. Staged just three weeks after Team Australia’s historic result at the ISDE, the 2012 4-Day seemed to take on a greater significance than in previous years. It was accompanied by a sense of anticipation, as spectators realised that the domestic event would showcase the talents of riders who’d recently upstaged the world’s best; guys who were battlehardened and primed to step it up on home turf. And that’s exactly what the Warragul event delivered.

sport 2012 A4DE

The Youngest 4-Day Winner? There’s a perception that enduro is an old man’s sport; where motocross racers spend their twilight years. But, while it may be true that the average off-road champ is a little older than the average bloke standing on a national motocross podium, there’s been plenty of young Australians at the top of the enduro scene over the years. But who holds the record as the youngest Aussie to win the 4-Day since its inception in 1978? The question arose in the pits even before 21-year-old Daniel Milner won this year’s event. Was it Ben Grabham, who won the 2002 4-Day in Hervey, WA, at age 20? No. Was it Shane Watts who won his first A4DE Outright in 1993, also in WA? Nope. After being staged 35 uninterrupted times since Easter of 1978 at Cessnock in NSW, the 4-Day’s youngest ever winner was Mark Avard. Aboard a two-stroke Husky, “Frankie” won the 1986 event in South Oz at just 18 years of age.

sport 2012 A4DE

Stuart Bennett Long-time KTM stalwart, Stuart Bennett might have been out of the national off-road scene for several years now, but he masterfully towelled up the boys in the Over 45s Master class. Admittedly,

a Day 2 injury to Mick Shearer made his job a little easier, but Bennett showed all the class thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s made him a multiple Aussie champ and even posted a few top-10 Outright times in special tests.

sport 2012 A4DE

Jess Gardiner Having posted a historic podium position in the Womens class at the final round of the Enduro World Championship in France on the weekend prior to the 4-Day, the 19-year-old reigning A4DE and AORC champ missed the prologue at Warragul and arrived into Australia at 2am on the opening day of competition. Despite riding with jet lag and having the odd cat nap at controls, she knuckled down to clinch her third consecutive A4DE Womens-class title. All class and fast!

sport 2012 A4DE

Damian Smith At 38, you’d think the reigning AORC Vet-class champ might be slowing down a bit. Not so. Warragul’s combination of tight enduro tests and slick grasstrack suited the wily old Husky pilot down to the ground, and he revelled in the conditions. Smith comfortably won the Over 35s Vets class ahead of Yamaha’s Kirk Hutton, and ended the event in a respectable 18th Outright.

sport 2012 A4DE

Teams Trophies The NSW team won the Senior Trophy Team, ahead of Victoria and Queensland, while the Queenslanders found revenge by winning the Junior Trophy. Ballardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Yamaha Off-Road took out the Trade Team Trophy, besting the Husqvarna Racing and Motorex KTM teams, while Leongatha One claimed the Club Team Trophy.

sport 2012 A4DE

Behind T he

images

Daniel Milner

Alex Salvini

G l e n n Ke a r n e y

Matt Phillips

Stefan Merriman

1ST E1; 1ST OUTRIGHT After the 21-year-old Victorian’s stellar result at the German ISDE, he was expected to do well at Warragul, especially as the event was staged not far from his home town of Lang Lang. But few expected such a masterful display of both speed and consistency from Milner. Sure, his 250 suited the super-tight enduro tests and slick grasstrack, but Milner has clearly matured as a rider after a year under the watchful eye of Geoff Ballard, and the bloke’s destined for bigger things.

2ND E1; 3RD OUTRIGHT Having fallen in love with Australia when he came out to race the 2011 A4DE in Mackay, the Italian factory EWC pilot was given the opportunity to return and race for Husqvarna Australia, and he made the most of it. Salvini had a slow start, but soon found his groove and started pressing for Outright podiums. Salvini couldn’t replicate last year’s class-win but he spoke highly about the incredible depth of talent in the Australian off-road scene and vowed to return next year.

2ND E2; 6TH OUTRIGHT At 31 years of age, the Husqvarna Racing rider may be getting on a bit, but he seems to be fitter and more driven then ever before, and clearly enthused by Team Australia’s historic result at the German ISDE, where Kearney soldiered on despite a badly gashed knee. With his knee still far from 100% at the 4-Day, GK rode the wheels off his TE310 and led the E2 class for the first three days. But he simply couldn’t keep pace with Matt Phillips in the Day 4 final moto and finished a close second.

1ST E2; 4TH OUTRIGHT After posting Team Australia’s best finish at the ISDE, Phillips was expecting big things of himself at Warragul and hoping to claim his first ever A4DE Outright win. But things didn’t go right from the start. When bike hiccups and untimely crashes cost the talented 19-year-old any chance of the Outright win, he focused his energies on winning the E2 class, and a dominant display in the final moto sealed the class victory. He fell less than a second short of claiming third Outright.

2ND E3; 5TH OUTRIGHT After pre-walking the special tests and getting a fix on how technical the event was likely to be, everyone knew that the 39-yearold Yamaha rider would be right there in the mix. And, despite riding a big-bore machine that didn’t suit the conditions, he sure was. The vastly experienced enduro vet made very few mistakes and he kept Toby Price honest in the E3 class. Amazingly, Merriman ended up just eight seconds off third Outright. Not bad for a bloke who could ride the Vets class.

B e n G ra b h a m

Josh Green

D a n i e l S a n d e rs

To b y P r i c e

Peter Boyle

4 E2; 10 OUTRIGHT After breaking his back in a Condo 750 crash at Easter, Grabbo wasn’t sure if he’d ever ride again. But just six months later – after an intense rehab program – the 30-year-old made a welcome return to racing, using the 4-Day as a warm-up ride for January’s Dakar Rally. Grabham was in no rush to do anything rash at Warragul, but he visibly grew in confidence over the event, and to finish top10 in a field with the current depth of off-road talent is a testament to the quietly spoken bloke’s determination and competitive spirit.

3 E2; 8 OUTRIGHT After seeing the weather reports and rainfall stats in the lead-up to the event, Active8 Yamaha’s 22-year-old Josh Green must have been second-guessing his decision to step up from the YZ250F he’d raced all year to the WR450F for the 4-Day. But the flamboyant young charger adapted quickly to the bigger bike and carded some very impressive special test results. Nonetheless, a few crashes ruled out any chance of catching GK and Phillips in E2, and he was disappointed not to do better than eighth Outright.

3 E3; 9 OUTRIGHT While this kid’s name may not be well-known on the national off-road circuit, he’s highly respected in Victorian enduro circles where his old man, Peter, made a name for himself back in the day as a rider who was unbeatable in the wet. Daniel Sanders regularly placed third behind Price and Merriman in the E3 class and should be very proud of his top-10 Outright result. He magnanimously auctioned off his mullet at the final presentation to help raise funds for the Australian Cancer Council.

1 E3; 2 OUTRIGHT Carrying broken ribs from an ISDE crash a few weeks prior to the 4-Day, Toby Price was in constant pain throughout the entire event and you could see it written all over the poor bugger’s face. Price reckons the event’s long, smooth transport sections were his only saving grace, but he struggled to wrestle the big KTM 500 in the tight tests and was in agony during tyre changes back at Parc Ferme. Having won the past two 4-Days, Price was disappointed to run second, but he was quick to congratulate Milner on his success. .

3RD E1; 7TH OUTRIGHT In a quality field like this, who on Earth can turn up out of the blue and run with the top men? Peter Boyle; that’s who. Widely regarded as the most laid-back character in national racing circles, Boyle’s ‘work period’ would involve standing around, scratching his arse and watching the clouds go by, while his opposition changed tyres and air filters. But on the course, the Honda rider took the intensity up a notch or three and gave team managers every reason to keep him on their radars for next year’s AORC.

MORE ONLINE... Wanna know more about this year’s A4DE? Check out www.transmoto.com.au, where you’ll find Andy Wigan’s daily blog, image galleries and a couple of sweet video edits from the magicians at Russell Brothers Films.