After a pre-season full of intrigue, the 2025 Australian Enduro Championship begins in Kempsey on the weekend of March 1-2.
Undoubtedly, the biggest news over the summer was that 2022 world enduro champion Wil Ruprecht would be returning home, replacing the international-bound Kyron Bacon in the ShopYamaha Off Road Racing Team alongside Will Dennett.
Not only was the announcement a shot in the arm for the rebranded AusEnduro Championship, but the extra spice was that Ruprecht would be competing against defending E2 champion and 2018 International Six Days Enduro individual winner Daniel Milner in a mouth-watering battle.
Kempsey’s opening sprint round on Saturday will provide the first tantalising sample of how the rivalry will transpire, while the likes of Dennett, Andy Wilksch and Tom Buxton will be doing their best to be the ultimate spoilers.
To add even more excitement, riders in E2, as well as those from the E1 and E3 classes, will also be battling for the coveted title of Pro Enduro champion in 2025. There will be an outright winner per round and at the conclusion of the championship in a ‘best of the best’ scenario like the FIM EnduroGP title.
As well as the top brass in E2, E1 riders like Jonte Reynders, Cooper Sheidow and Fraser Higlett, and William Price are all expected to mount serious Pro Enduro cases, as well as Jye Dickson, Korey McMahon and Riley McGillivray from the E3 category.
Reynders, who is shifting from E2 to E1 following his move to KTM after many years in the Sherco bunker, is the X factor who could give Ruprecht and Milner the most Pro Enduro troubles – just like his fellow Tasmanian, Bacon, did in 2024 on a 250cc four-stroke when he gave Milner the hurry up.
Joining Reynders on the move in 2025 is last year’s E1 runner-up McMahon, who is E3 bound where Dickson will defend his championship.
A smattering of junior jets are also making their way into the senior ranks in 2025, including last year’s top two Jett Yarnold and Eli Tripcony. The duo will ride in the E1 class.
The 2025 AusEnduro Championship will cater to the full gamut of senior and junior classes and, as well as Pro Enduro, the other major change from 2024 is the addition of a Sportsman Cup for state clubman-level riders – an exciting outlet for grassroots competitors to show their mettle on a national stage.
In total, AusEnduro will encompass 11 championship classes – seven senior and four junior – and four Cup classes, with over 200 entries for Kempsey.
There are also two dedicated women’s and girls’ classes, both All-Powers, with Jess Gardiner the favourite to reclaim the former now that reigning champion Danielle McDonald has moved on to racing in the U.S.A. Gardiner’s closest rivals will include Ebony Nielsen and the 2024 girls’ No. 1 Madi Simpson.
In the popular junior class – the most heavily subscribed in Kempsey – Tomas Porto and extreme enduro star Kogan Lock are the standouts.
The Kempsey rounds will be run under a sprint format, where riders complete as many heats of the enduro course as indicated by the Clerk of Course. Times will be cumulative; the rider with the least accumulated elapsed time for each class will be the winner and so on. The course assessor is former AusEnduro champion and legend Josh Green.
