Bewley wins at Bulahdelah 2014 AORC season opener

In Husaberg's final year of competition, it was a good start to the season, and hopefully a pointer of things to come before the Husaberg brand disappears for good at the end of 2014.

This year also marks the brand's final year as a distributor-backed team in Australian off-road competition.

Like many riders in the Yamaha AORC season opener for 2014, Bewley wrestled with the combination of high speeds, thick dust, and powdery trails on the first day of the Australian off Road Championships at Bulahdelah - a crash early on not helping his confidence - and he finished third in class and 11th overall on Saturday.

However, the Oberon rider rebounded on Sunday with a renewed determination, to take the class win and third outright, placing him second in the E3 championship after two of 12 rounds.

JARROD BEWLEY - Rd.1: E3-3rd, O/R 11th, Rd.2: E3-1st, O/R 3rd: "For me it didn't start off the best, I crashed on the first lap; a silly little crash and some tight trees that snapped off my hand guard and nearly my finger. It cost me some time and my confidence from the start on a track that had tricky, fast, powdery, sketchy ups and downs.

"Sunday's track had a lot more singletrack and I tried a different mindset on the FE501 to regroup and finish on a good note, and ended up winning the third race outright which put me in overall third today and first in E3. So it was a real good finish after not a good start, but I think I had some first round jitters and I'll be right now for the rest of the series."

Teammate Geoff Braico also found it difficult to harness the Mojo after early scares in sketchy conditions, however, many would consider a pair of fourth-place finishes in his first race on the Husaberg FE350, and in the star-studded Premier E2 class, a more than honest result.

GEOFF BRAICO - Rd.1: E2-4th, O/R 13th. Rd.2: E2-4th, O/R 11th: "The conditions were really pretty tough here; fast, hot, dry, rocky, dusty …scary conditions. The organisers did what they could, but the weather conditions were against them. The track was super fast and it had me beaten from the word go - I had a few big moments early on and from then on my mindset was no good, and it didn't help when Pricey and Milner got hurt.

"Needless to say the weekend didn't go as I'd wanted. Fourth place is okay considering how the E2 field is pretty stacked and the results were close. My mechanic, Drew was awesome; we mucked around with the suspension today once the track was really chewed out, and made some good progress.

"Overall I'm just happy to get through safe, it was a track that could bite you at any time so it was not the most pleasant of weekends, and the bike never knew what you wanted it to do. But we learned a lot and the E2 podium is now my goal, and I know what I can work on."

2014 YAMAHA AUSTRALIAN OFF ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 1&2: 22/23 March, Buladelah, NSW
Rd 3&4: 19/20 April, Boyland, QLD
Rd 5&6: 3/4 May, Hedley, VIC
Rd 7&8: 21/22 June, Coonawarra, SA
Rd 9&10: 19/20 July, Kyogle, NSW
Rd 11&12: 6/7 September, Heathcote, VIC

For more information on Husaberg motorcycles, go to: http://husaberg.com.au/