After rain leading up to the Yamaha Victorian Offroad Champs, near Bendigo in Victoria track conditions were good on the weekend with wet ground, drying out to a nice loam.
On Saturday 100 offroad riders battled it out to complete as many laps of the 20 min loop over a three hour race in the Cross Country side of the two days.
Four time World Enduro Champion, Stefan Merriman from Nelson Bay, NSW chose to compete in the State title as the perfect preparation to the Australian Offroad Championship which will be held in the same location in two weeks time (10-11 July).
Starting from a dead start, Merriman was in 6th position by the first corner and worked his way up into 3rd position by the third lap following Daniel Milner and Mitch Harper. Milner crashed and Merriman got through into second, then he followed Harper until he to made a mistake, then Merriman led to the finish.
Merriman made two pit stops over the 3 hour cross country, as he was using the smaller tank. He then went on to build his lead for the remainder of the race finishing 3.25 minutes ahead of Milner.
defending champion Daniel Milner finished second while Honda's AJ Roberts round out the podium. Christopher Davey took fourth ahead of Pro Motocross rider Justin Carafa. Carafa was making his second appearance in the Off Road disipline and said he enjoyed the day in the bush. "I was a bit under geared and running abit rich on the 2 Stroke RM250, but all the same it was great fun and a real challenge to remain focused for three hours," he said.
Riding the new Yamaha YZ450, Merriman had a convincing win on Sunday in the Sprint fomrat. Merriman took a clean sweep winning all seven of the 11 minute sprints, with combined times he won by 1 min 12 secs from Daniel Milner and Mitch Harper.
Merriman will return home to prepare for the next Australian Offroad Championship (same format as VICs) in Wedderburn VIC (same location) on the 10th July.
Yamaha Victorian Offroad Champs - Round 8 (Saturday -Cross Country)
1 Stefan MERRIMAN - 2:50:59.384 -
2 Daniel MILNER - 2:54:24.461 - 3:25.077
3 AJ ROBERTS - 2:56:00.000 - 5:00.616
4 Christopher DAVEY - 2:58:32.784 - 7:33.400
5 Justin CARAFA - 3:00:04.389 - 9:05.005
6 Ben BURRELL 3:01:11.786 - 10:12.402
7 Dale martin MARTIN - 3:01:49.850 - 10:50.466
8 Josh BALLARD - 3:02:24.910 - 11:25.526
9 Jason COURTNEY - 3:02:48.096 - 11:48.712
10 Russell WALTER - 3:02:54.585 - 11:55.201
11 Sean MILNER - 3:03:04.456 - 12:05.072
12 Shaun MURFET - 3:05:07.274 - 14:07.890
13 Rick MILES - 3:05:59.076 - 14:59.692
14 Troy MAYNES - 3:08:13.736 - 17:14.352
15 Brandon HEALEY - 3:09:32.589 - 18:33.205
16 Dwayne LLOYD - 3:09:49.769 - 18:50.385
17 Brett BARRETT - 3:10:31.027 - 19:31.643
18 Rhys BENNETT - 3:11:02.951 - 20:03.567
19 Aaron BONFADINI - 3:12:59.251 - 21:59.867
20 Peter SCHAPER - 2:49:54.471 - 1 Lap
Yamaha Victorian Offroad Champs - Round 9 (Sunday - Sprint)
1 Stefan MERRIMAN - 1:17:43.612
2 Daniel MILNER - 1:18:55.220
3 Mitch HARPER - 1:20:10.921
4 Sean MILNER - 1:21:14.681
5 Dale martin MARTIN - 1:21:19.046
6 Christopher DAVEY - 1:22:12.479
7 Alex STEPHENSON - 1:22:17.407
8 Lachlan TERRY - 1:22:31.689
9 Josh BALLARD - 1:22:34.998
10 Ben BURRELL - 1:22:54.581
11 Shaun MURFET - 1:23:21.616
12 Jason COURTNEY - 1:24:01.492
13 Dwayne LLOYD - 1:24:11.393
14 Brendan HARPER - 1:24:22.786
15 Russell WALTER - 1:24:49.380
16 Brett BARRETT - 1:25:15.835
17 Rick MILES - 1:26:05.279
18 Brandon HEALEY - 1:26:05.870
19 Rhys BENNETT - 1:26:19.159
20 Jed CORNTHWAITE - 1:26:31.778
