Phillips to lead Yamaha off-road charge

Ballard’s Yamaha has announced a tantalising mix of young stars and a stalwart to contest the 2012 national off-road season, with Matt Phillips and Daniel Milner to be joined by Stefan Merriman.

Phillips, 18 and Merriman, 38 have retained their places in Yamaha’s official off-road team form 2011, while promising 20-year-old Milner is a new signing.

Chris Hollis, who won this year’s Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) for Ballard’s Yamaha, has not kept his spot in the team.

Phillips and Milner will compete in the E2 class in the AORC and Australia Four-Say Enduro (A4DE) aboard Yamaha’s new fuel-injected WR450F, while Stefan Merriman will be defending his E1 title.

Phillips was the revelation of 2011, winning his class at the A4DE, and then finishing second behind Hollis in the AORC outright standings. His breakout year also included a brilliant performance in the 2011 International Six-Day Enduro.

“I’m happy to be returning to Yamaha,” Phillips said.

“We’ve got some big plans on the cards for the 2012 season, which will be very exciting. I’m definitely looking forward to riding the WR. The new frame, fuel injection and new suspension will make it even better than the YZ(450) to ride in the bush. All that will be left will be going fast."

Other events on the Ballard’s Yamaha calendar in 2012 will include the Hattah Desert Race and Wildwood Rock extreme enduro.

In other Yamaha news, Merriman has just returned from a two-day enduro in the Japanese island of Miyakejime, with the event held to rebuild an area devastated by volcanic eruptions and complete evacuations of its population.

The 38-year-old, riding a YZ250F, finished third outright behind two local riders.

“This was a really important race for us to be a part of,” Merriman said. “The government there is using all means possible to help re-establish the population of the island and to attract tourism revenue. For them to include a motorcycle enduro is innovative and fantastic for our sport.

“It definitely was an interesting ride, as the course had to be changed the day before, which meant we couldn’t use the good track that they had prepared up and around the island’s main volcano, Mt. Oyama.

“They had received a lot of rain, so it was too wet and foggy up on the mountain to race there. The organisers then only had limited area for a track, which ended up being just four-minutes long.

“The race wasn’t a traditional enduro. It was ran as a 2.5-hour cross-country, with all of the 100 riders -- who ranged greatly in ability, with some on TTR-125s and bikes as small as 80cc -- all starting at once.

“This was pretty crazy -- with 100 riders continually lapping around a four-minute track. The track was rocky and mostly single trail, so trying to overtake was a nightmare and you were constantly overtaking people.

“There were a couple of little hills - riders were everywhere, some stuck, others turning and coming back down. It was a race of survival, trying not to get tangled up.”