Image: John Pearson.

Former Australian motocross champion Luke Styke admits an unusual slow start to the weekend’s fifth and sixth rounds of the Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) at Dungog ultimately saw his undefeated winning streak in the E1 category come to an end.

The Active8 Yamalube Yamaha rider, who’s in his first year of enduro racing, was forced to accept second in Saturday’s proceedings before returning to the top step of the podium on Sunday.

Styke explained that it’s not about recording the perfect season, expressing his pleasure in being able to turn his form around at the double-header stop in New South Wales.

“I just got off to a slow start on the Saturday and was trying to catch up the rest of the day,” Styke revealed. “Usually I’m pretty good at getting things happening right away but I was a bit flat and let some valuable time slip.

“Sunday was better, and I was pretty determined not to have a repeat of the day before. It’s not about having the perfect season but just riding and racing the way I know I should and I was able to rebound well on Sunday and get things back on track, so that was pleasing.”

The New South Wales native holds down a 24-point advantage in the E1 class as five rounds of racing are still scheduled to be run in the AORC series.