The first major national off-road race of the year took place down in Melbourne last weekend at Calder Park Raceway, with Honda privateer Peter Boyle dominating the InsureMyRide Enduro-X finals in what was kind of an upset win over the country’s leading teams and regular talent.

But it wasn’t the Boyle win that was the outright major story of the weekend, because what the event did was outline a number of structural team changes in Australian off-road competition.

The big one was that the event signified the formation of Craig Dack’s CDR Yamaha off-road team, taking over from retired legendary team owner Geoff Ballard. The team will likely field Daniel Milner and Stefan Merriman in 2013 on debut, but we don’t know the exact structure as yet.

Daniel Milner debuted CDR Yamaha’s off-road team at the Enduro-X. Image: Russell Colvin.

CDR has been running Yamaha’s factory motocross and supercross effort for 20 years, winning the last five straight MX Nationals championships with Jay Marmont (four) and Josh Coppins (one) respectively. When it comes to Yamahas, Dack and his crew are one of the most knowledgeable teams on the planet.

But despite Milner being pitted out of the CDR Yamaha team van on the weekend at the Enduro-X and winning both his heats, Dack was reluctant today to speak about his team’s off-road program just yet. Obviously he didn’t deny it and of course it is happening, but the exact structure isn’t yet known, or at least finalised to the point of announcing it.

That said, his motocross effort was only just announced today after months of speculation.

The addition of CDR Yamaha in the Australian Off-Road Championship and Four-Day will be a major boost for the sport, because interest will be high from those involved in motocross and supercross – both fans and industry personnel across the board.

Although he won his heats, Milner was forced out during the first of three finals. Image: Russell Colvin.

Another team we will see closely aligned this year is the Motorex KTM Off-Road Racing team and its motocross counterpart. KTM Australia has taken its motocross team back in-house for 2013, so expect a number of sponsorship alignments and a lot of co-marketing to happen between the teams this season.

Considering Boyle’s success at the Enduro-X and the long standing rumour that Carlton Dry Honda team owner Yarrive Konsky was considering fielding a factory AORC team this year, it’d be no huge surprise to see that Victorian-based team actually go ahead with a team in the years to come. Dack’s deal may just open the flood gates to a whole new era in the sport.

We’ll wait and see how this pans out, because it’s going to be interesting, that is for sure!

For now though, take a look at some highlights from the weekend’s Enduro-X – it’s quickly establishing itself as one of the premier events of the national off-road season. The guys at Ride HQ have done an awesome job at capturing the vibe and all the action from throughout the weekend.