The late Andrew McFarlane from Brisbane in Queensland is one of Australia’s all-time great supercross and motocross racers, contesting the World Motocross Championships from 2000 to 2005 when he was second in the World MX 2 class, then moving from Europe to America to race in the AMA MX and SX Championships through to 2008.

McFarlane started dirt track racing at age 6, before taking up motocross.  He showed early promise and, in his first season in senior ranks, finished second in the State Queensland Championships.  

In 1995, at just 18 years of age, “Sharky”, as he was nicknamed, won both the Australian 125cc & 250cc Supercross Championships, creating history to be the first rider to achieve this feat.

McFarlane won the 1999 Australian 250cc Motocross Championship as a privateer on a Yamaha, with his dad Ron as mechanic, with 2000 being his breakthrough year! 

After joining the Kawasaki Racing team, he launched his international racing career after an inspiring performance at the 2000 World 500cc Motocross Grand Prix at Broadford, Victoria.  

In front of a 15,000-strong crowd, he kept the world’s best riders in his dust for more than 20 minutes, eventually finishing fourth overall.

With this performance, successfully defending his National 250cc Championship title (ahead of Michael Byrne and Chad Reed), as well as winning the prestigious Supercross Masters series that year, he was picked up by the Rinaldi Yamaha Factory Team and moved with his partner Natalie to Italy to contest the 2001 500cc World Motocross Championships in Europe.

With Broadford securing a second World Grand Prix, McFarlane returned home for the 500cc Grand Prix round, this time finishing second, going on to finish seventh in his first full season.

In 2002, McFarlane switched to the 250cc class and over the next three years he consistently finished overall in the Top 10 (8th 2002, 6th 2003 and 4th 2004) before becoming the Runner-up World MX2 Motocross Champion in 2005.