Image: John Pearson.

Yamalube Active8 Yamaha’s Beau Ralston will return to the Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) this weekend at Kingston SE in South Australia after battling through a number of injuries in the last two years.

Ralston was forced to sidelines following the opening rounds of the 2017 championship when he sustained a season-ending knee injury, while his hopes of a healthy return earlier this year were dashed when he suffered a foot injury in the lead up to the Finke Desert Race.

With minimal seat time under race conditions, the E2 contender has modest expectation ahead of the eighth and ninth rounds as he anticipates to use the double-header weekend as a building base for the remainder of the season.

“I’m very excited and I can’t wait to race again,” said Ralston. “It’s been a long time coming due to an unlucky run of injuries. After the first two rounds of AORC last year, I pretty much destroyed everything in my knee, so I had to have a knee reconstruction, ACL replacement, MCL and hamstring reattached, plus a damaged femur and fibia.

“Coming back from those injuries, the plan was to be a desert racer this year, as my main focus. Bad luck would strike again, as a week before Finke I crashed and broke everything in my foot. That was a real kick in the gut, as I was in the best shape of my life.

“I’m a racer at heart, so I’ll definitely be trying to win. We’ve competed in two races in about two years however, so we have to build race fitness to properly challenge at the front. [I] Can’t wait to get amongst it.”

Ralston will be joined by Yamalube Active8 Yamaha regulars Josh Green, Luke Styke, Wil Ruprecht and Michael Driscoll.