Six little ducks went out one day: WHES Round 1.

If you don’t want to know exactly what happened at the Adventure On Store MounTurner Madness WHES Round 1 then stop reading!

If you do want to know, then best you go make a KEG of tea or coffee ‘cause this is gunst ta be a long one!

Always an Adventure catches the rider that is Alway on an Adventure! Petrig wins Gold in WHES Rd 1.

The number of riders that have stepped well out of their comfort zone coming into the 2026 WA Hard Enduro Series is twisted.

So many are riding up a level and a healthy portion of those have stepped out of the smoke haze and straight onto the podium.

How could you not want this face on the podium? Laughing Bulldog captures Jason Bale who captured Silver.

Jason Bale is just ‘that fella’ that everyone knows and loves. He always has the time, the tools and the talent to help anyone out, anytime.

He is, if you like, the ‘mother duck’ of Hard Enduro over here in the WHESt.

Suffering a massive knee injury in 2023, before the WHES juggernaut really set sail, Jason has been around the paddock and in the grid for the last few years. He dipped a toe in the early days, before really committing to racing Silver in 2025, when his bitz had healed better.

Before MounTurner, he had never set foot on the podium and he went into Round 1 carrying all the load of six little ducklings that had come to what was, for most of them, their very first hard enduro event. All six had been training with Jason and EBWA in the off-season.

From the minute he arrived the poor guy was like an educator at a ‘big child care’ centre. “Jason, my bike won’t start!!”, “Jason, where do we put our fuel?”, “Jason, How long is the race?”.

So how is it then, with all the stress of motherhood causing more compression than an XTrainer can be dialled in to handle, did he manage to take out P1 in Silver?

Clearly, Jason is practicing what he preaches – bringing the ride down to techniques that reduce fatigue and prolong precision.

Clearly, EBWA has cracked the code to staying cool, calm and collected, enabling Jason to go the distance in Silver. Look at the photos: he was not there for a hard time, but he was there for a good time and long time.

In fact, after 3.5 hours the victory came only after he ploughed up a hill Liam Pickering (P2) lost out on. This was on the final lap, proving that you have to stay in the race to stay on top of the race.

Jason got him by less than 2min in the end.

So how did the little EBWA ducklings go?

Henry Purvis, the only Junior entered in the event, had the red mist on the start line dialed up to Mach 5 a whole 17 minutes before the flag dropped.

Unsure how exactly a HE event ran, he was under the impression that he had to ride hard for the full 3 hours.

Fortunately, I was able to quell his anxiety and let him know that all he really needed to do was complete one full lap before they pulled in the tape. If he did that, then he could claim that he had conquered the MounTurn.

And to his credit, he got the job done!

That "Deer in the headlight" look that only Hard Enduro can conjure. Iron Class newcomer Tim McLean.

Tim McLean was another of the six little ducks that went over the hill.

Keen to get his son involved in enduro, Tim really threw himself at the bike only recently. After a few HE training sessions with EBWA, he ended up on the starting grid in the (new for 2026) WHES Iron Class (+45).

He had done Toodyay Terror in the literal heat of ’25. Toodyay is hard, but it is short. MounTurner is harder, and it is LONGER.

At a youthful 60 years of age, his objective for the year is to just complete a lap of each round. At MounTurner he got two under his belt.

Once he overcomes that ‘dear in the headlight’ fear that HE instils in most of us, he will be a solid challenger in Iron Class.

Man of many talents. WHES Prez and Gold Class P1 Jakob Petrig.

They say Gold is a valuable commodity at the moment. Maybe that is why everyone is trying to get at it.

To keep them honest, WHES Prez Jakob Petrig is doing his best to give them the sort of tracks that Gold rushes for.

I asked him how he defines the 2026 benchmark for track setting: “Make it as hard as possible, but still make it somewhat possible. I’m always tryna push limits!”

Not dissimilar to one of those slightly crazed gold rush junkies that wandered out into the wasteland to find their fortune back in the day, Jarrod ‘Mad Dog’ Manuel probably gives us the best insight into what it is like to step in the WHES Gold rush.

The Mad Dog and his mates. Jarrod Manuel got well invested in the Gold Rush.

“Yeah I was definitely nervous. But super stoked with the 2 laps. Especially after a lot of the Gold lads said it was the hardest track they have ridden. I’m super excited for the year; pushing and progressing. I cant wait for Dardy (WHES Round 2)”.

Jarrod has not been in the scene that long. So the entire paddock was super chuffed to see him do well. “I did Toodyay terror in Bronze in 24 and stepped into Silver for ’25. Now Gold in '26”.

He reckons he pulled up alright after the race, given the ‘spice level’ of MounTurner.

At the last minute Petrig had put a whole lot more ‘unknowns’ into Gold that had, up until this year, previously been unridden. Quite remarkable for a property that has been so heavily dissected by WHES since day dot!!

All that aside, it was a struggle to get a photo out of the Mad Dog. He said his phone is just full of photos of him and his Kelpie.

Not even 'that bridge' can wipe the smile off this boy. Boston King snags P3 in Gold.

Whatever WHES is ready to throw at the riders, how ready the riders are really comes down to how well they have prepared in the off-season.

On that, and out of nowhere, came the boy with the rodeo smile.

Boston King had a few of the seasoned punters scratching their chins at the end of Round 1 when he found the podium on his first race in Gold. Super pumped with his performance, he attributes his step up to all the off season riding with the likes of Damien Pruden, Luke ‘Lab Rat’ Abbott and Petrig.

The Gold boys are toit and everybody knows that - training and pushing each other on any given Sunday. But under race conditions it is every man for himself out there when the Gold rush is on. You are but traction for the rider behind you!

With new categories (Iron Class) and a tonne of new riders, the WHES committee, spearheaded on the organisational front by the energizer bunny (Emma Petrig), have planned a big year ahead.

Racing under the umbrella of AMEC, with all the insurance and logistics churning over in the back end, WHES has given riders confidence in the season ahead.

Among the riders, there are battles forming and targets being drawn on the backs of jerseys in all categories.