Chris Hollis excelled in Saturday’s cross-country format to take the round nine overall win. Image: Four Oh Four.

Motorex KTM Off Road Racing Team’s Chris Hollis and CDR Yamaha’s Daniel Milner have shared outright round wins at the weekend’s ninth and 10th rounds of the 2013 Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship at Wedderburn in Victoria.

Wet conditions made for tough going for competitors who faced off in alternating formats across each day. Saturday’s round nine featured a cross country format over a single-loop track, while round 10 saw riders go head-to-head in a series of sprints.

Hollis ran second to Milner in the early stages of Saturday competition before working his way forward and taking over the lead at the half-way point of proceedings.

KTM’s Hollis held out Yamaha’s Milner by a 38.478s margin, stopping the clock at 2h22m09.962 after six laps.

Stefan Merriman ran third behind teammate Milner, around three-and-a-half minutes off the pace. Ben Burrell captured fourth ahead of Glenn Kearney who completed the outright top five on Saturday.

Milner and Hollis continued their battle in Sunday’s sprint races, with the former prevailing over the latter by an 18-second margin after four head-to-head battles.

Merriman again factored in the lead trio, securing a solid outright third from Kearney and Scott Keagan.

CDR Yamaha’s Milner takes a 28-point lead into the final dual-round weekend and said he would work hard to ensure he kept his grasp on the title.

“It would have been nice to win both rounds on the weekend but Chris was riding well on Saturday and I wasn’t able to bridge the gap late in the event,” said Milner.

“We still have two rounds to go and while my lead looks good on paper sometimes it doesn’t take much for all that to change.

“Our final rounds are in Dungog in a few weeks’ time so I will continue with my usual routine and ride each round on its merits just like I have all year.”

Hollis said he enjoyed the track and conditions that greeted riders on Saturday but rued some small mistakes in Sunday’s sprints that allowed Milner to take the overall win.

“[Saturday] was good on a tough track that was real wet with fast sections and tight sections – a pretty good combination really,” said Hollis. “I chipped away at Milner’s early lead and after half way I pulled past and away.

“I was still pretty fast [on Sunday] but I had a couple of crashes which threw a little spanner in the works, however I was still second outright and I had a bit of time on the other guys.”

Round nine individual class wins went to Hollis (E2), Milner (E1), Geoff Braico (E3), Damian Smith (Vets), Geoff Ballard (Masters), Tom Mason (Juniors), Tayla Jones (Women’s) and Andrew Wilksch (Clubman).

Round ten individual class wins were awarded to Hollis (E2), Milner (E1), Braico (E3), Smith (Vets), Trent Lean (Masters), Wayde Carter (Juniors) and Jones (Women’s).

2013 Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship
Round nine and 10 – Wedderburn, VIC

Round nine outright results:
1. Chris Hollis
2. Daniel Milner
3. Stefan Merriman
4. Ben Burrell
5. Glenn Kearney
6. Geoff Braico
7. Jarrod Bewley
8. Scott Keagan
9. Daniel Sanders
10. Lachlan Stanford

Round 10 outright results:
1. Daniel Milner
2. Chris Hollis
3. Stefan Merriman
4. Glenn Kearney
5. Scott Keagan
6. Jarrod Bewley
7. Lachlan Stanford
8. Peter Boyle
9. Tom McCormack
10. Geoff Braico

Outright championship standings (after 10 of 12 rounds):
1. Daniel Milner 218
2. Chris Hollis 191
3. Glenn Kearney 166
4. Stefan Merriman 153
5. Josh Green 149
6. Jarrod Bewley 145
7. Lachlan Stanford 126
8. Geoff Braico 111
9. Scott Keagan 108
10. Tom McCormack 102

Click here for detailed results