BROC Grabham has already enjoyed one of the best years of his racing career, but it could get even better for the Bathurst rider this weekend when he takes part in the inaugural Head2Head Endurocross at the Melbourne Showgrounds.
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The talented 20-year-old scored an invite to the prestigious event alongside the likes of World Freestyle Trials Champion Jack Field, German star Adrian Gueggemos, current Endurocross champion Chris Hollis and his older brother Ben.
“I am really looking forward to it; it is pretty good to be invited to an event like that,” Grabham said.
“They said it was only the top 20 in Australia that they selected. You couldn’t enter it, you had to be selected, and that makes it pretty special.”
While he was surprised and delighted to score an invite, Grabham’s efforts this year made it well-deserved.
He was second in the under 19s division of the Australian Off Road Championship, 10th outright in the Hattah Desert Race and was undefeated in his division at the NSW Off Road Championship.
Those performances got him noticed by a manufacturer as well, with Sherco offering him a contract for the remainder of this year and all of 2015.
“Sherco are based in Melbourne. They contacted me because they were looking for a rider,” Grabham said. “They are pretty big in France, but they are just getting into the market over here.”
Sherco gave Grabham a 300cc two-stroke bike for extreme style racing and his maiden outing with the new bike last weekend was an impressive one.
Grabham placed fourth in the annual Wildwood Rock Extreme Enduro to the man known as the “king of extreme enduro”, Graham Jarvis.
“I placed fourth outright and that was behind a lot of the top European dudes. The number one extreme dude [Jarvis] came over for it,” Grabham said.
“Going into it my goal was top five, so to get fourth, I was pretty happy with that.
“They had the prologue Sunday morning and a three-hour race on Sunday afternoon over all the rocks and logs.
“I prologued eighth, but in the race I came through them. The bike is nice and light – if you get a bit stuck on the rocks and logs it is easy to lift off.”
Competing at Wildwood will serve Grabham well heading into today’s racing given he will again have to negotiate obstacles including rocks, tyres and sand.
There will be an hour of racing this afternoon and another hour tomorrow, Grabham hoping to both hold his own and try to get the better of his 33-year-old brother Ben.
“It’s great that I get to race Ben. Hopefully they put us together a couple of times so I get a good go racing him,” Grabham said.
“I’ve raced him in the bush before, but really I haven’t ridden against him for two years.
“There are going to be a few pretty quick dudes there, so I am really not sure what the racing will be like. I did an endurocross a couple of years ago down here [Melbourne], but that was at Calder Park.”
In racing from 2pm today, riders will qualify in seeding order, then compete against each other in elimination rounds until only two remain for the final.