After a three-month break, in what seems like a lifetime ago now, the Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) finally swings back into action this weekend (July 20-21) at Kyogle, in the Northern Rivers region of northern New South Wales.
In between AORC rounds, a lot of the AORC field made the trek to the iconic Hattah Desert Race, which took place on the first weekend of July.
Heading into this weekend let‰Ûªs take a quick gander at everything you need to know in terms of the state of play of the championship across all classes.
E3
In the E3 category, Daniel Sanders holds a clean 100% scorecard having won all four rounds this year. He sits on top of the championship with 100-points locked away as he continues his march towards a second E3 Championship.
Sanders‰Ûª victory last time out marked his fifteenth round win in the E3 class and his twenty-eighth podium finish in the category. The last time Sanders raced at Kyogle was back in 2015, when he finished second to his then KTM teammate, Toby Price in both rounds on the Saturday and Sunday.
Fourteen points behind the Victorian rider is Beau Ralston, who has found himself finishing on the podium in four of the rounds with three second positions, at Rounds 1, 3 and 4, while at Round 2 it was third place, when he finished 20.651 seconds behind Andrew Wilksch, who finds himself in fifth place in the championship standings.
In third place and not to be over looked is Jesse Lawton with 72-points, while in fourth place is Matt Murry.
E2
Just like in E3 class, Victorian Daniel Milner has made the E2 class his own in 2019, taking line honours in all four rounds proving he is the man to catch this year. Fresh from his recent Hattah Desert Race win, Milner will be looking to extend his championship lead this weekend. Milner‰Ûªs closest rival and last year‰Ûªs E3 champion Josh Green (Active8 Yamaha Yamalube) has a question mark on if he will compete this weekend. Green suffered small fractures, a lot of bone bruising and damaged ligaments in his wrist after he fell at the Hattah Desert Race.
‰ÛÏAfter seeing two hand specialists, MRI, X-rays and physio we have worked out that surgery is not needed as nothing is completely snapped or ruptured.‰Û
