2022 AORC: RD1 & 2 HIGHLIGHTS

After WR250F-mounted Kyron Bacon consistently posted the fastest overall times at the opening two rounds of the Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) in Queensland last weekend, there’s been renewed pressure on the AORC Organising Committee to divulge each round’s Outright results in addition to – NOT in place of – the class results. After all, if a 250cc machine towels up the bigger-bore bikes, sharing that information makes sense because it adds another fascinating element of interest to the series for everyone, right? Right! Of course, that’s just one of a myriad reasons we’ve spelled out over the past few years.

Motorcycling Australia’s PR about Rounds 1 and 2 of the 2022 season did make a few references to the “Fastest Overall Time”, while the major race teams’ PR now seems to have re-embraced talk of where their riders placed in both the class and Outright standings.

But, more importantly, how will the AORC present itself to the television audience when the highlights package of the AORC’s season-opening weekend goes to air in the coming week or two on SBS and Stan Sport? Will it bamboozle its audience with a long and obscure list of class results, which makes little sense to the uninitiated? Or will it inform that precious TV audience who the fastest Outright riders were (that is, irrespective their bikes’ capacity) in addition to listing the top three in each of the major Pro classes? Fingers crossed it’s the latter because to engage with and follow a series, fans need simplicity; not an undecipherable alphabet soup of classes and capacities.

Meantime, check out this cool seven-minute highlights package of the opening two rounds of the AORC’s 2022 season – which played out in some of the gnarliest terrain the series has ever seen – along with the AORC’s Outright points table after Round 2.