HAWKESBURY enduro twins Mitch and Josh Brierley have won their class of the Australian Off-Road Championship.
The brothers are twins, but are not identical, and it is the first year they have raced in different classes.
Josh has had a bit of a growth spurt and won the J-3 class, while Mitch won the J-2 class.
The pair, who have raced against each other for many years, said it was an odd feeling not competing directly this season.
‘‘We used to race against each other but I am a fair bit bigger than Mitch this year so I’m in a different class,’’ Josh said.
‘‘It depends on who is better. We’re on different bikes this year.
‘‘We’ve been pretty close to each other in past seasons.’’
Mitch said he and his brother preferred different tracks to each other.
‘‘I am better at the more open fast stuff and he is better at the technical,’’ he said.
‘‘It was pretty good being in a different class [to Josh] but it is also good to be in the same class as well.’’
The pair both had trouble free seasons on their way to winning, although Mitch had a little hiccup in his off-season.
While practising, Mitch said he dabbed his foot in a corner, and twisted his ankle which then broke.
‘‘It was lucky it all healed before the start of the season and other than that I didn’t have any crashes,’’ he said.
‘‘It took about five weeks to heal and I got my cast off on a Monday and had my first race on the Sunday.’’
Mitch said he was pushed hard all season by two rivals, but he managed to emerge from the season with a lead of more than 30 points.
‘‘I think it couldn’t have happened much better than it did.
‘‘Other than breaking my foot, it was pretty smooth,’’ he said.
A race weekend in the championships is worth 25 points, which means Mitch had at least one weekend up his sleeve compared to the rest of his class.
His brother Josh had a better margin to his closest rival.
‘‘It was a pretty good season.
‘‘It was a pretty clean season. ‘‘I didn’t have any crashes or hurt myself badly,’’ he said.
‘‘If you finish every race you’ve done pretty good for the season because a lot of people don’t finish every race.’’