2023 AORC: THE OUTRIGHT OUTAGE?

Ever since 2017, we’ve questioned the sudden disappearance of any reference to “Scratch”, “Overall” or “Outright” results in the Australian Off-Road Championship’s (AORC) official PR, and expressed concerns that it’s left everyone feeling shortchanged. And while we’ve always acknowledged the good intentions behind Motorcycling Australia’s decision to put a greater relative emphasis on the series’ class results, there remains no reason why MA can’t acknowledge both class and Outright results – for each AORC round and for the series.

In spite of all the compelling reasons to bring back the AORC’s Outright, however, MA continues to treat the ‘O-word’ like a long-forgotten illegitimate child. But – and this is a big and very bizarre but – MA still keeps tabs on the AORC’s Outright points table. In fact, everyone does, albeit on the down-low! Huh?

Well, MA keeps a tally of the AORC Outright points so they can determine the one rider who wins the coveted AORC Outright crown. But they only reveal and announce that at the end of the year – in season 2023’s case, Josh Green – and they don’t share ‘their’ Outright table with anyone all year. The AORC’s race teams do it because they all bonus their riders on each round’s (and the series) Outright results, and because it lets their riders peg themselves against everyone, not just those in their class. And at Transmoto, we create our own AORC Outright table because we believe the AORC – its riders, stakeholders and fans – are all the poorer for being deprived of round-by-round information about riders’ Outright results and their standing in the Outright points table.

So, for the record (and because we’ve continued to publish progressive points standings for the AORC’s Outright throughout the year), here’s not only the top 20 Outright placegetters in this year’s AORC, but a list of every rider who’s finished in the top 20 at any round of the series and earned themselves Outright points. To all of you, congratulations!

NOTE: Unfortunately, the EJ-class riders will never know where they finished the 2023 season in the Outright points standings because they raced on a separate course for the series finale Enduro-format rounds at Dungog (on private property, due to public road licencing issues for Under 18s), and therefore weren’t able to collect Outright points there.