Nathan Ready to Pull the Trigger on AORC podium at Broken Hill

Set to make his return again to the Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) for another crack at trying to get onto the podium, Nathan Trigg (Motul Pirelli Sherco) answers a handful of questions ahead of the seventh stop on this year’s tour, which heads to Broken Hill in New South Wales on the 10th and 11th of August.

How are you feeling about heading into the Broken Hill round of the AORC in 2019 and what will you be riding this year?

I’m feeling really good heading into round seven to be honest. I did quite well at the Hattah Desert Race which has given me a boost of confidence. For 2019, I’ll once again be racing in the E2 class aboard the Motul Pirelli Sherco 450 Factory bike.

Everything is feeling good, as I had a really good setup at Hattah, thanks to the team. On paper, everything should be ready to go for Broken Hill.

In terms of how I’m feeling in terms of the track, well it was a cool layout. It had some nice red loamy sand out the back, combined with some whoops in the creek bed area which made it fun to race on. I believe I have a pretty good setup with the bike for that type of conditions.

Looking back on 2018, which saw you finish fourth in your class, did you enjoy it last year and what were your thoughts on the round itself?

I loved the round. Hats off to the organizers who set everything up as it was a great AORC round. I think for 2019, the series have picked a better time of the year to host the round. Being the middle of the year, it might not be as warm as it was like in 2018. On top of that, hopefully Broken Hill has had some rain on the lead up to the round as well.

I’m hoping I can pull off another similar result as we did last year. As it was my first ever AORC round at Broken Hill last year, to walk away with a top five finish was pretty cool, which is a great reward to the team as well. 

Do you believe you can improve on your fourth place from last year? What do you think your chances are of getting on the podium?

I’m not to sure to tell you the truth, as I haven’t seen the entry list, at the moment. However, I feel pretty good. I believe I should get up there. A E2 podium would be great.

As I’m fit and healthy, I don’t see why I shouldn’t be able to get myself and the team onto the podium. I’ll certainly be riding as hard as I can to make it a possibility.

If you were to finish on the podium at Broken Hill. What would it mean to you?

It would be a great feeling to finish on the podium. The likes of Daniel [Milner], Josh [Green], Jérémy [Carpentier], and Brad [Hardaker] are on top of their game right now, so to be able to knock one of them off for a podium finish means you are riding well. While I have been racing a fair bit, I don’t believe I have been doing as much as those guys. 

In terms of 2019, how have you gone this year with both the Hattah Desert Race and Tatts Finke Desert Race?

The Motul Pirelli Sherco team and I were pretty organized for this years Finke Desert Race. We did a lot more bike setup, which gave me a good feeling with the bike, which is always important. I managed to prolog in sixth place. Then in the race I was sitting in fifth place on the way down to Finke.

However, I came off and ended up in hospital. That didn’t give me a lot of good preparation for Hattah. In fact, I didn’t even ride the bike at all, until the week before Hattah.

We simply just did some suspension testing and then jumped on and went racing. I ended up sixth in prolog for the race. In the race I think I got up to fourth. We went well; however, it was only a four-lap race because of the rain. In the end we ended up seventh just behind my teammate, Andy Wilksch. In our class, I managed to finish in fourth place.

How do you prep for these types of AORC rounds – being a desert special rider?

I Simply try and do more enduro type riding, longer rides, which actually suits me better as well. On top of that, I love the sandy conditions. As I live near Mildura, its good practice, as every time I go for a ride its sand. So all in all I feel pretty prepared heading into round seven of the AORC.