WE LOOK BACK AT WADE IBRAHIM’S 2025 AHEC

For years the AHEC has been Australia’s proving ground for hard-enduro warriors: a torch-lit chain of brutal rounds such as the Kosciuszko Killer, the Dog & Bone Extreme and the HillStorm Challenge that test bike, rider and nerves. It’s been a championship where consistency and grit count as much as speed; the podiums have been stacked with factory-backed talent, and scratches, slip-ups and misfortune have denied many riders what seemed imminent.

Into that mix came Wade Ibrahim: a rider whose name kept cropping up just behind the very front, his pace undeniable, yet the title still elusive. In 2023 he finished third overall behind Ruben Chadwick and Anthony Solar. In 2022 he was similarly within striking distance, perched on the podium but still reaching. He was the guy who had the speed, the talent and the heart — but not yet the crown.

Meanwhile Solar and Chadwick had carved out their own little duel atop the series. Solar grabbed the 2022 title ahead of Ibrahim by a whisker, and in 2024 he sealed the championship ahead of Chadwick after yet another intense title fight. They’d hogged the headlines. Ibrahim had been the heir-apparent — punching, threatening — but always something slipped.

Then came 2025. The build-up had all the familiar ingredients: the tough terrain, the factory machines, the big names and the steely ambition. But this year the stars aligned differently. Wade finally stepped up, sent a message, and claimed his maiden AHEC crown in style — out-riding both Solar and Chadwick, beating the “factory guys” in their own game.

We sat down with Wade to talk about how he overcame the factory talent to finally win that elusive crown.

ADB: How does it feel to beat our “Factory” riders?

Wade Ibrahim: It does feel good because, you know, the last couple of years, I’ve sort of been nowhere near it. You know, they were putting time on me and I probably didn’t put in the effort that I needed to, but then to come out this year, and I sort of won pretty comfortably most rounds — other than sabotaging myself a couple of times — but it feels good to come out and sort of win off my own bat and, yeah, do it sort of relatively easy.

It does feel really good. So work’s paid off.

ADB: What was different this year then, to the previous years?

WI: So, previous years, I’ve never really ridden. Like, I’d be lucky to do 40 hours on a bike throughout the whole year.

But this year, I reckon I’ve ridden my bike probably close to 100 times. I would have done 150, 200 hours easy on the bike this year, which I’ve never, ever done that. That’s four years’ combined worth of riding almost. And it just showed. Like, I sort of went out there and I could ride and not be fatigued, and think with a clear head, and make good decisions — fast decisions that were effective.

ADB: This year, Ruben got the season off to the kind of start we expected. He won the first two rounds and then something changed, because then round three, four, and five, you won. Did anything change?

WI: No, well, so basically what happened — I would have won the first round easy. I had about a half-an-hour lead but I didn’t have my air filter clip in properly. So I blew my bike up, and then I finished second. Which was okay, but I was pretty annoyed. Obviously what happened, I dusted my bike so bad, the whole engine was shot the whole way through.

So Rob Nowak fixed it for me, but we had this issue where it was stalling. I’d get to the top of a hill or somewhere and it would stall. I couldn’t ride the bike to its potential, so I was crashing really bad. The next round, I still didn’t have that fixed. And I didn’t know what it was. So, not making excuses, but the second round I basically couldn’t ride the bike.

And Ruben — don’t get me wrong — on a track like that, Ruben is almost unstoppable. The track we rode at the New South Wales round really suited him, so he won that one. But then after that race, I got my bike fixed. It turned out being the reed block — put a standard reed block back in it, and I was back up to speed. And then I sort of never looked back after that.

ADB: And so talk to us then about your team. You don’t have a mechanic, obviously. What does the team look like to give you support when something like that happens?

WI: Well, the team is just me! No, look, it was a new bike. I’ve always ridden KTMs, but I went across to a ’25 Husky TBI this year and, yeah, I really loved it. But the air filter clips in a little bit different anyway. Bit of a rush, put it in, didn’t check it properly, and yeah — dusted it pretty bad. But then obviously, you know, it comes out of my own pocket to fix it as well. So quite expensive.

Like, I had one of my friends I work with, he helped me out a bit with going overseas and stuff like that. Other than that, Ballard’s gave me a bit of a support. I don’t have much support — Chad’s Off Road supported me as well — so it’s pretty well off my own bat, trying to get my bike sorted, tyres, and everything all in the one go. Mitas are great as well. But yeah, you still gotta do it all yourself. There’s plenty of room for error.

ADB: So there wasn’t a spare motor just sitting in the truck ready to bolt back in?

WI: Nah. Funny you say that — at Erzberg I blew a bike up in ten minutes, so we did an engine swap with a few of the guys. That was pretty interesting. But nah, this one here, I was lucky I had a big enough lead and no one else went out for another lap other than Ruben, so I was able to finish second at Conondale. Again, my own fault.

ADB: You went overseas midway through the season and raced. Did you bring anything back to Australia that helped in your quest for your first championship?

WI: Look, yeah, definitely. Like, I’ve been over to Erzberg I think five times. So, you know, I had a bit of experience over there. Had a good run, like qualified top-30 something. Anyway, I had a ripper start, got out there and I don’t know, I think I was in the top 10 somewhere. And then I think I just went a bit too hard, too early and sort of couldn’t keep the pace of them guys and just gassed myself.

I’ve never really done that previously and sort of hit a wall, gave a lot of positions up back to around 30th. But I took a lot away from it — riding with the guys over there that are doing it week in, week out. The level over there is a whole other level compared to here. But it was pretty good, and just seeing what’s actually achievable as opposed to what we’re riding here was like — far out — it makes you want to push yourself that bit extra, you know?

So coming back with that mentality, going, “Righto, this is possible,” I just kept pushing and pushing, and here we are. But in saying that, over there it is — you know, European dirt is a lot different to Australia. Australia, I find, is just a lot slipperier and it’s a lot harder to ride. Like, the same setups over there don’t work as well here, especially tyres and mousses and everything.

So it is different — like, it is definitely different. It’s harder in some ways, and yet in Australia, it’s harder in other ways. But it’s all experience.

ADB: What was your favourite round?

WI: If I didn’t blow my bike up, it would have been Corryong — because I just felt like I was on another level. I just did it so easy, as in, I just felt so comfortable. I would have gone 1-1 both days. But if not that, maybe Hillston. Hillston was a good one — that’s sort of the Erzberg-style race. It’s point-to-point, everyone rides the same track, so that was another good one as well.

Had a bit of a good battle with Solar there and then, yeah, managed to get away. But look, I’ve had some pretty good rounds. The tracks nowadays in the Hard Enduro scene are really good. They’re hard enough that you can basically ride the whole track without pushing if you’ve got enough skill. So they’re not crazy hard where you’ve got to team up with someone else to get your bike up or anything like that. They’re all sort of hard enough that you can ride if you’ve got enough skill — which I think is the perfect level of difficulty.

ADB: It sounds like Greg’s kind of got the tracks right across gold, silver, and bronze?

Wade Ibrahim: Yeah, definitely the tracks are on point. There’s nothing you get there and think, this is ridiculous — it’s all possible. Obviously, we’re training a lot more and putting ourselves in those positions beforehand, so we know what we’re up against. Sometimes we’ll get onto a gold-silver, like a dual track where we’re going up these combined hills, and they’re still hard enough for the silvers that everyone’s getting around it without too much trouble.

Obviously, when it rains, that can have a big effect, because the difficulty goes up. But as a whole, the tracks across the board are really, really good — they’re suited to the level. I can’t complain. They’ve done well.

ADB: Speaking of rain — it was okay this year. We didn’t have much of it. Was there a round you’d rather forget?

WI: Probably, to be honest, the Queensland round, when I couldn’t ride my bike properly. I basically destroyed it because it kept stalling. Big rocks, rocky hills, just kept flipping it, stalling. The weather was all right, but everything about up there — I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

ADB: You kind of got through the season unscathed?

WI:  I rode a lot this year, as I said, and I only laid it over a few times but nothing crazy. But I went riding with Anthony Solar just Monday gone for training. I hadn’t crashed in forever — ten minutes in, I go up this hill, the front wheel lands on a rock, the rock gives way, I fall probably five metres down into a blind creek, over some ferns, and smack my hand and my knee. I thought, oh no, I’ve broken it.

But I actually went and saw Dr Daniel Sanders — he sorted me out with some painkillers. Dr Chucky to the rescue! I was all right, thank God, because I thought, oh no, this is classic end-of-the-season stuff and I’ve hurt myself. But other than that, touch wood, I’ve been really, really lucky with injuries. I never really hurt myself at all, to be honest.

ADB: Coming into the last round, it could have gone either way, did you stay calm?

WI: Yeah, so I had a 40-point lead on Ruben, which wasn’t enough. You know, a win on a Sunday is 50 points more than second. So I thought if I went all right and won the Saturday — because it’s half points — then on the Sunday I could just cruise.

Anyway, classic Wade — I changed my handlebars and didn’t tighten them on the Saturday. Went out, got the holeshot and was leading, and then the bars were on the tank. Then they were way forward, then on the tank again. I’m like, no! So me and Ruben are having some battles.

We got into this really tight creek — I stopped in the creek so he couldn’t get past, strategically. There’s a guy there, Jason Larsson. I said, you haven’t got a 10 mil, have you? He randomly has a 10 mil spanner in his pocket! Pulls it out — while I’m holding Ruben and everyone up at this waterfall, I quickly get the bar pad off, tighten the handlebars, and keep going.

But by that stage, I’d gassed myself because I was fighting this bike, trying to ride. You know, with Hard Enduro it’s all about timing and trying to ride these little rocks and stuff — and me pushing on the handlebars, weighting near the back wheel and stuff, I was out of time, going nowhere, using all this energy.

By that stage, I was pretty knackered. Ruben got around me, I got back around him, and anyway, he ended up winning the Saturday. So Sunday was basically winner-takes-all.

On the Sunday, I was a little bit nervous on Saturday — I never usually get nervous — but Sunday I wasn’t nervous at all. I just rolled in. Ruben had a bit of a lead, and I got around him and never looked back. Unfortunately for him, he shredded his tyre back to a full slick — which was unlucky, because it would’ve been good to have a proper battle with him.

But anyway, the track just suited me a lot. At my house, I’ve got some really loose, rocky, dry tracks, and this track resembled that a lot, which is my favourite sort of riding. Real steep, loose, rocky stuff with no grip. So once I got out there, I felt good and just checked out — away I went.

ADB: Did you win any money this year?

WI: To be honest, I reckon I probably spent $100,000 this year racing my bike. You know, going overseas and doing everything else — that’s about it. Not a lot. I spent a lot of money — obviously blowing it up and just going riding — all the fuel, everything, it all adds up.

ADB: Greg Petersin has done a good job with the Australian Hard Enduro series. It’s quite a new series, how do you think it could be improved so it continues to grow and is seen as the equivalent to the AEC and ProMX, but in the Hard Enduro discipline?

WI: I think just the content — the publicity of the whole series. We really need to capitalise on all the racing we do — show it to the public and to the world, what we’re actually doing, and get it out there so sponsors and like-minded people can see it and be interested and want to invest in it, you know? I think it just needs to be promoted a little bit better and everyone could do their bit. It would definitely help it — hopefully grow it. It’s a new series and we understand that’s going to take time.

ADB: Logistics — five rounds a year. Pack up Thursday, get there Friday, race, home Sunday night, straight back to work?

WI: Pretty much, yeah. This round just gone I had to help my brother, I was supposed to be babysitting because my missus is away. I’m looking after three kids and helping him pour a concrete wall till nearly 11pm on the Thursday before leaving Friday — hadn’t even packed — and I had a sore hand. That’s the standard, always something last minute. Then straight back home, straight back to work.

Last year I was lucky enough to ride for a team (WBR) who were great. But I couldn’t get time off work and couldn’t put effort into my riding. They offered great support, gave me a bike, helped financially but I just couldn’t get the results. This year the tables turned a bit and I freed up a little and put a bit of time in.

ADB: Did your young family get up on the podium with you?

WI: I didn’t get them on the podium. I got some photos with the trophy and stuff. Greg and that have made pretty cool trophies that you hang on to for the year and give back. So I’ve got that for the year — pretty good — a couple of cool photos, yeah.

Gold Class

Silver Class

Bronze Class

Junior Class