Wade Young conquers Wildwood Extreme Enduro

Images by Kane O’Rourke Photography

South African Wade Young dominated last weekend’s toughest hard enduro event staged at Wildwood, on the outskirts of Melbourne Airport.

The Red Bull Sherco rider was never troubled during the four-hour multi-lap race finishing a huge 27-minutes and 12-seconds in front of Spaniard, Beta’s Pol Tarres and New Zealand Sherco flyer Hamish Macdonald made it an all-international podium.

Young’s dominance of the field had him incredibly close to lapping Tarres and Macdonald who were the only three riders to complete nine laps of the notoriously challenging course.

“It was brutal and hard on the body,” said Young after the four-hour ordeal. “There were only really two hard sections but the whole track was super tight. There was no place to go flat out. There were some gnarly rock sections which was pretty sick.”

Young began the race hot on the heels of Tarres before taking control of the race and marching away to an insurmountable lead.

“I started off in second place and got into a groove and picked away at the race,” Young continued. “I did lose some time in the tough sections waiting for Pol in the early laps but I took the lead and had no trouble from then on. Pol is a great rider and it was good to have him out here but it was good to take the win. The Sherco 250 SE-R was smooth and enjoyable to race, it’s a really good bike, and it was pretty cool to learn I was so close to lapping third and second place.”

The race for second place in the dying laps of the race had the crowd on edge as Sherco’s Hamish Macdonald came threatening close to passing Tarres. Macdonald chipped away at the laps and was never really troubled aboard a Motul Pirelli Sherco 300 SE-R.

“That was some tough, physical racing,” said an understated Macdonald. “I’m pretty happy to finish behind two of the best. I can’t thank the Motul Pirelli Sherco Team enough for their assistance with this race. I came here last year to learn what it was about and I gave it a real go this year. It was a lot of fun and I I’ll be back next year.”