Greg, Denise & Ryan Peterson established Grassroots Enduro Australia in 2019, we held our first race event in Towong Upper Victoria, since then the Australian Hard Enduro Championship grew from one single event, today there is a huge group of people and landowners who assist with the series to make it possible.
Enduro Gear was established by the Peterson family with the idea in mind, that hopefully one day it would become financial enough to help support Hard Enduro in Australia, not just the AHEC but all Hard Enduro.
At present we are starting to see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel and our idea may just become a reality in the next two years or so, fingers crossed hopefully sooner.
Our short term goal is for the store to become so successful that we can offer the following.
-Provide reasonable compensation to those who volunteer their time and assist with our racing events, fuel is expensive and the cost of living has escalated, we understand the cost of living pressures affect those who assist us.
This would apply to all volunteers, and also include sweep riders and officials.
In regard to assisting sweep riders, we have been approached by several competitors who’s racing days are drawing to an end, however they wish to remain in the racing scene and give back to the sport, if we can properly compensate these riders, it will create a solid capable crew who attend every event, this will allow us to provide a higher standard of safety along with consistency & professionalism.
In regard to compensating officials, there’s a huge shortage of officials available in Australia, events are regularly postponed due to this, the duties of an official is very time consuming.
We feel, if the officials are properly rewarded, this will encourage more people to become officials and the existing officials may stick around a bit longer or ultimately ditch their day jobs become fulltime officials and attend race meets every weekend, anything is possible.
– To help offset the cost of racing, we could provide excellent prize money for the podiums at the AHEC
– Better compensate landowners, the ongoing pressure of public land access is not going to go away anytime soon, while the vast majority of landowners love what we do and don’t ask for compensation, we feel, if we can offer a little more than camping fees we can secure more land for recreational & racing event, not just from a financial point of view but a moral point of view, without willing landowners our sport could eventually die, we can’t expect to use peoples land for next to no cost, providing potential landowners with a financial incentive should help increase the bank of available land.
– Lobby government to assist with the current insurance debacle, which will ultimately reduce insurance costs and licensing fees.(we are currently doing this)
In addition to our short term goals, Our long term goal is far more extravagant and includes the following.
-Assist clubs financially to help ensure their events remain viable.
-Assist promising senior and junior riders through proper sponsorship, mentoring, coaching, regardless of their chosen discipline.
-Create a Hard Enduro race team to compete in the national and state events
Fund 100% of the race team to compete in international events.
-Ultimately, we’d love to be in the position where we can make up any funding shortfalls that prevent recognized Australian teams from competing overseas, regardless of the discipline.
First and foremost, we love motorcycling, all forms of motorcycling. The physical and mental health benefits that come from the sport are amazing, the social scene is fantastic, we have made hundreds of friends through the sport and have watched many others do the same. We love a challenge, we want to see the sport grow and be the best it can possibly be, we feel the lack of funding for the sport from government & business hampers our current pro riders, up & coming riders. As mentioned previously, pressure on public land access isn’t going to go away, with better funding we can secure more land, we are an enormous country with plenty of land that is suitable for off-road riding, weather it be recreational or racing, with better funding we can help secure it for future use, this will benefit the riders, the importers, the retailers plus many many more businesses and families. If you like our concept and would like to see some or all goals come to fruition, we ask that you consider investing into your racing & riding future and work with us on this by purchasing from our store, every little bit helps.
Investing into your racing and riding future
