The battle for the 2010 Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) has reached fever pitch, with the final rounds of the series being held at Cherrabah Resort near Warwick in Queensland this weekend.
While the Motorex KTM Off-Road Team have all but tied up the championship E1, E2 and E3 class titles, war is still being waged for several of the coveted Outright top 10 positions as well as the championship Women’s, Expert E1 and Junior Class 1, 2 and 4 honours.
Defending champion Toby Price has a 34-point lead in the Outright and a 37-point lead for the Yamaha Championship E2 Class.
Motorex KTM teammates Jarrod Bewley and Ben Grabham are ahead by 54-points and 46-points in championship E1 and E3 classes respectively. In the championship Outright, Bewley sits second to Price followed by Grabham.
Ballard’s Wellard Yamaha’s Stefan Merriman sits fourth, seven points behind Grabham.
Only one point separates Queenslanders AJ Roberts (Honda) and Kirk Hutton (Yamaha) for fifth Outright – Roberts currently holding the advantage. Another mere point is keeping Yamaha rookie Ben Burrell from the top-five. Burrell is two-points back from Roberts, in seventh.
The battle for the Motul Championship Women’s Class is just as heated, with Cairns rider Tanya Hearn ahead of Ballard’s Wellard Yamaha’s Jessica Gardiner by three points.
In Expert E1, South Australians Ivan Long and Rhyce Ahola continue to lock horns, with Long in the front by four points with two rounds to go.
And in the Junior stakes, Graydon Lindsay leads the J1 Class by three-points over Shey McKerlie.
Todd Barry has a 15-point lead in J2, while Nicholas Lean and Mitch Kellner hold sizeable advantages of their respective classes: Lean 70-points in J3 and Kellner 131-points in J4.
Queensland Enduro Champion Kirk Hutton is looking forward to racing in his home state.
“I’m glad the Queensland AORC is gonna be at Cherrabah,” he said. “I’m looking forward to racing this weekend. I finished in the top three Outright at the Cherrabah rounds last year, so hopefully I can get a similar result and get enough points to finish in the top five.”
Gates at Cherrabah Resort will open to the public at 9:00am on 4-5 September. Admission is just $5.00/adult, while children under 14 are free.