The new season of the Australian Off-Road Championship will commence in Queensland this weekend, the beginning of a year where a new champion will be crowned Outright. With last year’s title winner and recent Dakar Rally champ Toby Price focused on rally, this year will be spectacular.

While we primarily follow motocross on MotoOnline.com.au, the AORC series and associated enduro races are world class in Australia and we have some of the best off-road riders you’ll witness globally. It’s not super high profile, but pivoting off the back of last year’s Six Days success and the heroics of Price, now’s the time to take advantage.

But at the same time, the sport is relatively low-key in general. Off-road riders tend to get on with the job and while there are flashes glitz/glamour with the full factory teams, it’s usually all about competing at the highest level possible and winning races.

In 2016 we’re going to increase our coverage of the AORC locally with prompt race reports as soon as results are decided and accessible, plus quality photography and features throughout the season. It’s logistically challenging at times due to the event locations, but definitely achievable. The sport deserves it.

Image: Russell Colvin.

And it seems that locally, this weekend really marks the true start of the national calendar. AORC this weekend, the Australian Superbikes a week later on Easter weekend and the the MX Nationals opener, there’s lots going on and we’re thankfully well-placed to cover it all the best we can across our titles.

So here’s to a great season ahead, we’re pumped to get everything underway and the content will really ramp up from here. And before I hand this over to Adam Spence for his part, if you want MotoOnline info delivered to your inbox, be sure to sign up to our weekly newsletter by clicking here. It’s been revamped for the new year and has been hugely popular so far. Here’s Spence…

It feels like these final few weeks in lead up to the opening round of the 2016 Motul MX Nationals are taking forever. The majority of the off-season went by in a flash, now it’s these final weeks of waiting that continue to build suspense and as usual the endless amounts of bench racing rolls on.

Although the Australian national motocross series is yet to kick off, we’ve had plenty of exciting racing action to follow to date. It’s awesome having Ben Townley, who let’s be honest, we have basically taken on as an adopted Aussie over the years, contesting the 2016 MXGP series. As expected, Townley has turned heads on and off the track, making waves throughout the world championship circuit in no time.

Speaking of New Zealanders who we’ve slowly taken under our own wing as they’ve contested at the highest international levels, Cody Cooper has snuck his way into the 2016 New Zealand Motocross Championship points lead recently. The defending champion remained consistent all season as he battled with the Australian duo of Todd Waters and Dean Ferris, a tactic that is looking to have paid off.

Image: Andy McGechan (BikeSportNZ).

Ferris found himself on the ground during the third round of the championship last weekend after a dream run of two-straight overalls in the premier class. This allowed Cooper to capitalise and move his way into the lead ahead of both Ferris and Waters. It’s going to go right down to the wire this weekend with the top three riders separated by just five points. Will either of the returning Aussie MXGP contenders be able to steal the title away from the crafty Kiwi veteran? We’ll soon find out!

Another Australian rider that could claim his very own New Zealand national motocross championship is Jed Beaton. The Tasmanian has been chipping away over in NZ, battling primarily with MX Nationals regular Hamish Harwood throughout the short series. Beaton currently sits 13 points behind Harwood heading into Taupo’s season finale and it’d be a great way to kick off the year if he could head home with that MX2 number one plate.

In speaking with Beaton earlier this year after securing his spot with the DPH Motorsport team following the Serco Yamaha/Luke Clout/Wade Hunter saga, it was hard to ignore the fact that his situation was quite similar to that of Jay Wilson’s heading into 2015. Beaton had a solid rookie season in the MX2 category with Serco Yamaha, then found himself searching for a ride in his second season.

He’s now made his way to New Zealand for his pre-season preparations, he looks super comfortable and clearly has been riding quite well to date. Could Beaton follow in Wilson’s footsteps and surprise some people this year? We all know he’s a very talented rider and he seems to have that extra drive this year to really show what he can do. It seemed to work for Wilson, so it will be interesting to see if it has the same effect on Beaton that’s for sure.

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