X Trial Australian Championship
Camera IconX Trial Australian Championship Credit: Supplied/Supplied

X Trial Australian Championship reaching great height at HBF Stadium

Sara FitzpatrickEastern Reporter

NEIL Price describes his sport of X Trial motorbike racing as the outcast of the motorcycling world.

It’s the introverted and misunderstood little brother, but Price has plans to change that.

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“We’re slow and there’s no enormous amount of noise and money involved, so by nature we tend to be very quiet,” he said.

“We compete in the natural terrain, way out in the bush, so it’s not something you’d stumble across.

“It’s something very different but we know from doing public demonstrations that the riding we do is absolutely spectacular.”

The 12-time Moto Trial Outdoor WA State Champion is presenting the X Trial Australian Championship next month.

The motorsport is surprisingly popular with young girls.

“I think girls are out there looking for different things rather than the boring old stereotypes they’ve had all their lives,” Price, a father of two daughters (aged two and five), said.

“The sport is you and your bike against the course: in most other forms of motorcycling it’s you against the other competitors and in some of those sports it can be a positive trait if you’re prepared to use the other person as traction when they’re laying on the ground.

“It’s traditionally run outdoors on natural obstacles – X Trial is kind of like Twenty20 cricket: it’s a spectator-focused, spectacular show.”

Price said all obstacles on this X Trial course were manmade, such as massive earth-moving tyres, skip bins, scaffolds and tree logs.

“It looks like an industrial construction wasteland obstacle course – it’s pretty cool,” he said.

The main event, featuring the best riders in Australia, is inside HBF Stadium arena and preceded by the free X Trial Pit Party, including electric bike demos, food trucks, face painting and a magician.

THE ESSENTIALS

What: X Trial Australian Championship

Where: HBF Stadium, Mt Claremont

When: March 18

Tickets: www.ticketmaster.com.au