YAMAHA RIDERS HOME IN ON AORC TITLES

After busting his femur back in early April at a local race in Tassie, ShopYamaha’s 20-year-old sensation, Kyron Bacon, planned to ease his way back into racing when he returned to the AORC fray last weekend at Rounds 5 and 6 of the national series in South Oz. But that’s not exactly how it played out. In fact, the reigning AORC E1 and Outright champ was back in the winning grove pretty much straight away, claiming a 1-1 result in the Pro E1 class for the Cross-Country/Sprint race formats over the weekend and, remarkably, 2-1 in the Outright results!

Despite missing two entire rounds at Queensland’s QMP in late April as he recovered from the busted leg, Bacon’s back-to-business-as-usual performance in South Oz immediately rocketed him back up to fourth in both the E1-class and Outright standings. And with two weekends (and four rounds) of racing remaining, Bacon looks to be a very real chance of finishing on the podium in both his class and the Outright for the series! And that’s something you don’t often hear during a season where a bloke busted his femur!

“I’m just happy to be back at the AORC and racing again,” enthused Bacon, after the successful comeback in South Oz. “It had been nearly three months between races for me and while my recovery went well, I just wanted to get back to an AORC round and see how my progress was coming along. I still think there is room for improvement, and it took me a little to get warmed up each day, but it was a positive weekend for me and the team and it’s good to be back. Thank you to everyone in the team for supporting me and standing by me during my injury. It was cool to be back with the guys and having fun racing. You don’t realise how much you miss it until you can’t do it,” Bacon went on to say.

Also returning from injury (and knee surgery) – suffered in the final moto at the A4DE back in May – Josh Green had a similarly positive weekend in South Australia. Despite nursing a fresh thumb injury, the reigning E2-class AORC champ still managed to go 2-1 in the Pro E2 class, and 3-4 in the Outright. Green’s results were enough to extend his lead in the E2 class from 13 to 17 points. And more significantly for 33-year-old Green – who’s finished the season second or third Outright in the AORC more times than he cares to remember – he also managed to amplify his 18-point lead in the Outright points table to 31 points (thanks, in part, to both GASGAS’s Korey McMahon and Sherco’s Jonte Reynders suffering DNFs after encountering bikes issues in Saturday’s super-dusty Cross-Country race). And with Victoria’s Edenhope round (recently rescheduled to early September) now officially cancelled due to the property’s super-wet conditions, there are now two fewer rounds for the boys to catch Green and stand in front of his long-overdue maiden AORC Outright title win.

“I was happy to be able to get through the weekend, not only in one piece, but also make some inroads in the championship hunt,” explained Green. “I can’t say I had a lot of fun on the weekend as most of the time it was damage control to get through the two days of racing and preserve my body. I had strapping all over me, and then the dusty conditions also meant looking after the bike also become a priority. Thankfully we were able to do both, and we leave here in pretty good shape. There are a few weeks until the next round and, being at Kyogle, it will be technical. So I will need the time for my thumb to recover and be ready to go in mid-September.”

Heading into mid-September’s penultimate weekend of AORC racing in Kyogle, NSW, Yamaha riders sit atop the points standings in the Outright (Green), E1 class (Cooper Sheidow), E2 class (Green), EJ class (Wil Dennett) and EW class (Jess Gardiner).

See the table below for the AORC’s Outright standings after Round 6, or more detailed class results, check out the AORC website.