Off Road

Yamaha Active8 Yamalube Racing’s Luke Styke rebounds at Dungog AORC round

Posted:

Monday, March 16th, 2020

12:05 PM

Luke Styke

The weekend tossed up all kinds of challenges for the Yamaha Active8 Yamalube Racing team as they faced stiff opposition, a world heath issue and a good old fashioned down pour that had cancelled racing on Sunday at rounds three and four of the Yamaha Australian Off Road Championship (AORC).

But through it all, both Luke Styke and Josh Green held firm and finished on the podium to keep their 2020 championship aspirations alive.

The Dungog round in New South Wales hosted rounds three and four of the championship, but the heavens opened around 1pm on Saturday afternoon and never stopped, causing Sunday‰Ûªs program to be called off as the course was under water.

Luke Styke

After a couple of hic-ups at the opening round of the AORC, including injuries to his ankle, Luke Styke got his season back on track with a dominating performance on Saturday, winning the E1 (250cc) class and clawed back the class lead in the championship.

The round saw a return to a traditional enduro format and Styke was back to his best and often positioned his 250cc machine inside the top three in outright times as he thundered around the bush surrounding Dungog. He won every special test in class, but more importantly, regained confidence back in his body after a frustrating run of injuries.

He now holds a slim one point margin lead of Mason Semmens in the E1 class, but feels things are back on track.

‰ÛÏIt was good to come into the weekend feeling healthy and ready to race,‰Û

Josh Green

Josh Green continues to rack up podiums at the AORC and again took third place in the E2 (450cc) division despite some ups and downs along the way. Green started the day strongly, but fell heavily in one of the morning tests which really set him back on the time sheets.

He was able to rebound well from the fall and post some fast test times again as the day went on, but the damage was done on the time sheet and Green was forced to settle with a third place finish for the round.

He now sits second in the E2 class, 15 points behind class leader, Daniel Milner.

‰ÛÏIt was a bit of an up and down weekend for me with some good test times but also a couple of ordinary ones that hurt me at the end of the day. I think there were a few top three times in tests but there was also some way down in the top 10 when I fell off. No rider can afford to be inconsistent in a championship as competitive as this.

‰ÛÏStill, despite the mistakes, its still good to be on the podium and leave here healthy. I‰Ûªm second in the championship but only two points separates three riders and we still have a lot of racing to go.‰Û

Josh Green

AORC Results ‰ÛÒ Round Three

E1 (250cc)
1st Luke Styke
2nd Mason Semmens
3rd Kyron Bacon

E2 (450cc)
1st Daniel Milner
2nd Michael Driscoll
3rd Josh Green

Championships Standings ‰ÛÒ After Round Three

E1
1st Luke Styke ‰ÛÒ 70
2nd Mason Semmens- 69
3rd Kyron Bacon ‰ÛÒ 62

E2
1st Daniel Milner - 75
2nd Josh Green ‰ÛÒ 60
3rd Todd Waters ‰ÛÒ 59