It was a dry and dusty affair at rounds five and six of the Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) at Edenhope in Victoria, with ShopYamaha Team riders of Kyron Bacon and Will Dennett over-coming the elements to reach the podium on both days.
Kyron Bacon dominated the E1 (250cc) division with another strong performance. He topped the time sheets in the majority of tests across the two days. His winning margin was over a minute on each day and despite some chain issues at the previous round, he has a seven-point lead in the E1 championship chase. In terms of Outright results, only Daniel Milner was ahead of him on each day at Edenhope..
“I felt good all weekend and made some improvements as the weekend went on. The dry conditions were tough to ride as the dirt some become powder and filled the ruts. I crashed a couple o times in one test on Sunday morning but managed to not lose too much time and clawed it back as the day went on.
“Thanks to the team for doing a great job and keeping my bike in awesome shape and to event organisers who did the best they could with the conditions. Our next round is a QMP so hopefully we get some warmer weather and some better riding conditions as the numbers at the AORC rounds have been awesome this year,” Bacon said.
Will Dennett also put together a consistent weekend resulting with podium finishes in the E2 class (450cc) on both days. Dennett finished third in class and fifth Outright on Saturday and third in class, sixth outright on Sunday.
Like Bacon, Dennett also suffered some crashes on Sunday morning in the powder but was quickly able to regain his composure and finish the weekend on a strong note.
“Dry sand is never anyone’s favourite surface to ride and the more it’s ridden on, the harder it gets to ride and the tougher it can be on the bike as well as the vision for the rider. I managed to get through the weekend with no major problems and kept pretty consistent results across both days.
“It would have been awesome to ride if we got some rain but the region is so dry,. Thankfully we were able to go ahead with the weekend and get two good rounds of racing in.
“There were some high speed sections out there and the tests were hard work at the end of each day so it was good to stay in contention and the team had the bike working well right from the start.”
In the other classes, Jett Yarnold was on fire Saturday, dominating the Under 19 (EJ) class and finishing a career high ninth in outright results. Yarnold was on the gas from the get-go and running right alongside the most established names in off-road racing.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have the same day on Sunday and struggled with the fast-paced nature of the Sunday test. Some uncharacteristic mistakes as well as a small bike issue later in the day proved costly and he rounded out the day seventh in class.
Yarnold holds an eight-point lead in the EJ class as the series hits the halfway point.
The Junior categories so both Harley Hutton and Marcus Nowland in action. Hutton finished the weekend with 2-1 results in the J2 (85cc) class and has built a 25-point lead at the halfway mark of the championship.
Nowland wasn’t his usual dominant self this weekend and struggled in the dry conditions. He didn’t have the pace of the front runners in the J3 (Junior 250cc) class and was forced to take fourth on both days and not the weekend he envisioned leading up to the event.
He leads the class with a 13-point lead but knows that he cant afford a repeat of the Edenhope round if he wants to maintain his lead in the J3 championship.
The AORC now takes a small break before moving to Queensland on July 27-28.
AORC Results
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AORC Results
Round 5 – Edenhope
E1
1st Kyron Bacon (Yamaha)
2nd Korey McMahon
3rd Tom Buxton
E2
1st Daniel Milner
2nd Jonte Reynders
3rd Will Denett (Yamaha)
EJ
1st Jett Yarnold (Yamaha)
2nd Davey Gear (Yamaha)
3rd Will McInnes
J2
1st Levi Rossi
2nd Harley Hutton (Yamaha)
3rd Liam Egan
J3
1st Harry Gilbertson
2nd Mitch Ford
3rd Kai Austin
4th Marcus Nowland (Yamaha)
Round 6
E1
1st Kyron Bacon (Yamaha)
2nd Korey McMahon
3rd Tom Buxton
E2
1st Daniel Milner
2nd Jonte Reynders
3rd Will Dennett (Yamaha)
J2
1st Harley Hutton (Yamaha)
2nd Levi Rossi
3rd Liam Egan
J3
1st Mitch Ford
2nd Kai Austin
3rd Harry Gilbertson
4th Marcus Nowland (Yamaha)
AORC Championship Standings
E1 - 1st Kyron Bacon
E2 – 2nd Will Dennett
EJ – 1st Jett Yarnold
J2 – 1st Harley Hutton
J3 – 1st Marcus Nowland