Angus Riordan is an exciting rider with some serious spark. The 20-year-old Australian has been based in the USA for more than five years but he remains as Aussie as a meat pie. He’s fast on a dirtbike and if you were paying attention, you’d already know he finished the 2024 Hattah Desert Race in second place. If that’s the first time you’ve heard of him, you’ve been missing out on the rise of a rider who has the potential to reach the very top. If you’re not on the Gus Bus yet, you soon will be. So who is Angus Riordan?
“Originally, I’m from Mildura and then moved to Barwon Downs on the edge of the Otway Ranges and lived there for a few years before moving to California in 2018. My brother (Will) and I were still riding Juniors back then. My parents were co-founders in Cobram Estate olive oil company and we moved over there so they could help build the company in America. I was 14 at the time and halfway through year-eight so I finished school in California. I didn’t really enjoy the schooling too much at the time but looking back on it now it was a good experience doing it overseas. Because of restrictions with our visas, we had to attend a small private school and maybe attending a public school might have been better as there might have been other people with similar interests. We were riding dirtbikes, of course, while they were all into soccer and American football. The people were nice enough but socially it was a bit different.”
HARD CHARGER
Angus Riordan and his brother Will race at the elite level in the USA so you could be forgiven for thinking that there’s a family history for racing.
“I think Dad’s worst regret is buying us a Pee-Wee 50. Dad grew up on a farm and was always mustering on horses. Then he went working up north and must’ve started mustering on motorbikes a little bit. Mum was always into horses and she thought me and my brother were going to be horse riders but she got that wrong. Real wrong”
Riordan enjoyed racing motocross as a kid and then found himself in the thick of the junior action in the Australian Off-Road Championship before moving to the USA.
“My first proper year racing in the pro ranks here in the USA was in 2021 when I was 17. I raced in the XC2 Class of the WORCS series and finished second for the year, which was the year I finished school. Then it was either go home to Australia or keep racing in the US. The opportunity was there to keep racing so it seemed silly to give it up, so I moved East to give the GNCCs a crack.”
HATTAH HOMECOMING
The Hattah Desert Race is a long way from the intense schedule of GNCC racing in the USA, but Hattah seems to suit Riordan. In 2023, Riordan placed fourth at Hattah on a KTM 350 which is a commendable feat when most consider the event a horsepower race. This year, he placed second racing a 450SX-F after starting the race in sixth position. The kid is fast.
“I love coming home to race Hattah, probably because I grew up there. I remember watching Toby Price race it when I was little and thinking it would be cool to race it like he does. This year I made the overall podium behind Callum (Norton) which was cool. I grew up riding with Callum and know him really well. I love the desert stuff and riding wide-open. I love that type of racing and feel naturally, it suits me better. I want to come back and do it again next year and sort my prologue out so I am up with the top boys and get in their draft for the first few laps which will make it so much easier and not hung out to dry.”
GIVING ENDURO A GO
Dirtbike racing disciplines are as varied as football codes and EnduroGP is as far from the Hattah Desert Race as soccer is to rugby league. You can understand the surprise when Riordan showed up to the EnduroGP of Britain and won the super test outright before carding 1-2 results in the Junior division for the weekend, just a few weeks after racing Hattah.
“Last year I was talking to Paul Edmondson about potentially going over to race the 2024 EnduroGP season with his Fast Eddy Racing Team but it never happened with how everything turned out for me racing GNCC. So I thought I may as well go and have some fun and race the GP in Wales during our summer break here in the USA. I didn’t expect any kind of result. I was just going to learn and have some fun but after putting it on pole for the super test I thought I better back myself up here so I don’t look like one-hit wonder. I’d never done an enduro before and luckily for me the rider I was on the same minute with told me to follow him and go into the time checks when he did. He’s a handy UK rider coming back from an injury who normally does the full season. After the first loop I had a feel for it and it all came together pretty good. I was watching videos after the race and watching Holcombe, Freeman, Garcia and Verona do a section. And because I knew the track and how I rode that section and they just blew my socks off. Its impressive.
“The EnduroGP was over two days with three loops each day. There [were] three special tests on each loop, a cross test, enduro test and an extreme test, so you did nine special tests each day. I got lucky with the weather and the conditions were like what I have back at home in Australia. I got lucky there I think. I’d like to give EnduroGP a crack full-time for a season. I’m contracted with KTM for GNCC next year but who knows what could happen, so we’ll play it by ear and see how we go.”
GNCC RACING IS A TOUGH BUSINESS
While some riders prefer to specialise in one particular code of off-road racing, Riordan isn’t afraid to tackle most things and he’s found himself quite good at it. Despite solid form at his one-off EnduroGP and racing Hattah, Riordan finds GNCC racing the toughest.
“GNCC is a three-hour cross country dodging trees, rocks, roots, mud ruts and mud holes. It’s a suffer-fest. Every race is a suffer-fest, they are just on different levels. But I enjoy it. It’s a fun suffering, if that is even a saying.
“GNCC gave me the ideal lead up for Hattah because it was halfway through our season and typically you’re nice and race fit and in good form by then. Even though Hattah is a longer race, you’re knackered in a different way. I didn’t vomit after Hattah but I normally vomit after a GNCC. I think you use your brain a lot more in GNCC. You might come into a section that might be 50m wide of just mud ruts and the one you pick is a gamble because at the end of your chosen line, it could be a six-foot mud-hole. Hattah is long and demanding but you get more breathers because of the long straights. There are no breathing breaks at GNCC.
“EnduroGP was physically easier because you’re not pushing the whole time. But I found it hard to go from the trail sections and switching it on for the special tests. That was something new for me and I think I might have struggled with that a little bit.”
THE AUSSIE CONNECTION
While Angus Riordan is immersing himself in the USA racing lifestyle, he lives with his older brother Will and has a bunch of Aussie connections that are all based in the USA.
“Will is a year older than me and while we live together, I hardly ride with him anymore. He will go and find some hills and I will race around the hills. We knew Lyndon Snodgrass from back in Australia and he was living with Josh Strang when I moved East so there was an Aussie connection there. My whole family moved East but my parents spend half of their time back on the family farm in Australia. That’s home and whenever we are back in Australia, that’s where we go.
“Lyndon (Snodgrass) lives with us now so he’s like a brother now. He’s part of the furniture. Josh (Strang) was training me last year so I was with him nearly every day and he only lives about 20 minutes up the road. This year I am training with Kailub Russell. Mason (Semmens) lived with us last year but he is on the West coast racing now and living with Sam Pretscherer. My brother and I grew up with Sam so we know all of these Aussie riders over here pretty well.”
