He started Saturday a little slow by his usual standards, but it didn’t take long before he hit his stride and started laying down the fastest test times throughout the remainder of the day. Across seven tests ran on Saturday, he pulled out a 20 second lead by days end and took the round win comfortably.
On Sunday, he was determined to get off to a better start and set the tone early in the day. He did exactly that and shot straight to the top of the clock from test 1. He then went on to win the first four tests and give himself a comfortable margin to play it safe in the final two tests and bring home another round win.
With the championship now at the halfway stage, Ruprecht is leading the way in the Pro Enduro and E2 classes, winning every round so far.
“The weekend went well and the conditions were good. There were a lot of similarities between the terrain here and QMP and what we raced at Dungog at the last round in that the dirt is quite hard packed and finding traction can be tricky at times. There is also more rock here at QMP which makes it more technical but overall, I enjoyed the weekend and the conditions.
“The team and the bike were working well and it’s good to keep the momentum rolling after starting the championship so well. I can see our rivals have been putting in a big effort and made some improvements, so we need to keep our foot on the gas and continue to work hard as we still have a long way to go and we can’t afford to lose focus,” Ruprecht ends.
Unfortunately, it was a rough weekend for his ShopYamaha Off-Road teammate, Maximus Purvis. The Kiwi started the weekend strongly, finishing inside the top three in the E1 division in the first three tests of the day, but then crashed heavily in the fourth test.
Although he tried to continue and finish out the day, Purvis was in pain and far from his best and elected to sit out the remainder of the weekend. He complained of pain in his ribs and mid-section after the fall and will get things checked out during the week to find out the possibility and extent of any injuries.
“After Dungog I was pretty disappointed and wanted to bounce back here at QMP,” Purvis begins. “I was feeling pretty good and had some top three in class in the first couple of tests and not far away from the lead. I just needed a couple of seconds, and it would have put me at the top of E1 and inside the top five in Pro Enduro, but I got pretty loose in the fourth test and went down hard.
“I feel like I have some damage to my ribs and it just made it too difficult to ride. The movement on the bike and then taking big deep breathes was tough, so we elected to sit it out and I will go and get checked out to find out exactly what’s up.
“Thanks to the team for a big effort. The season hasn’t gone as we had hoped so far, but I will do what I can to be back for the next round and get some decent results in the back half of the year,” Purvis ends.
It was BLU CRU support rider, Cooper Sheidow, who stepped up to take the win over the weekend in the E1 class. Sheidow was in control right from the first test on Saturday and showed impressive consistency and maturity to win both rounds on the weekend and lead home an all-Yamaha podium on both days with Deegan Graham and Jermey Carpentier filling the minor places each day.
“The last couple of seasons, I have had some injuries, and it’s taken me a long time to get back to where I was,” Sheidow explains. “I have finally got on top of my wrist issues and can now ride and race pain free and it’s allowing me to get back to full speed.
“It’s nice to get some good results again on the weekend and I’m really enjoying racing at the moment. The first few rounds have been a lot of fun and I’m really looking forward to racing in some sandy conditions in the next few rounds,” Sheidow ends.
It was a strong weekend for Yamaha at the AEC where the BLU CRU had multiple class winners over both days. Not only did Yamaha win the Pro Enduro, E1 and E2 on both days, add to the victories in the EJ (Marcus Nowland, EW (Madi Simpson and Jess Gardiner), JG (Lorna Lock) and J4 (Harley Hutton) classes.
Next round of the Australian Enduro is at Casterton in Victoria on June 20-21.
