Last season was huge for ShopYamaha Off-Road Racing’s Kyron Bacon, as the Tasmanian won the Yamaha Australian Off-Road (AORC) E1 championship, plus the Australian Four Day Enduro (A4DE) and was part of Team Australia’s third-placed Junior World Trophy Team at the International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) in France. His 2023 campaign was off to a great start with victory in E1 during both days of the opening AORC event in Mendooran, but a crash at a state enduro event left him sidelined with a broken femur. MotoOnline caught up with the Yamaha rider following his return to racing to ask Five Questions.

Image: Foremost Media.

Kyron, you must be stoked to be back from injury. How was it returning to racing and taking the win at Keyneton?

I wasn’t really expecting to come back to where I was. I wasn’t really sure where I was going to be at. I have been doing a little bit of riding, which has been good, but I definitely wasn’t expecting a win. I’d say I was more hoping for a maybe a podium in my class. So to come away with a win in the E1 class and outright, I’m pretty stoked.

What was the recovery process like returning from a broken femur?

It’s been a bit of a ride. It all started off quite well, luckily, I had a pretty clean break, so I didn’t really do any other damage, so that was good. I was in hospital on the Sunday and I checked out literally on the Monday after surgery, so it was all pretty quick. The crew at Racesafe were a really good help and good support, same with the whole Yamaha crew. There was a lot of time off the bike, I think it was around eight weeks, but there was just a lot of work behind the scenes trying to get my leg moving and trying to build muscle. I think I lost around seven kilograms, I was 72 and went down to about 65, so I lost a lot of weight and a lot of muscle. I’m getting close to being back to where we were and where we need to be now, so it’s been good.

You’ve been pretty dominant here in Australia recently. Do you have any goals or aspirations of getting overseas?

Definitely. I was actually meant to be heading to Europe earlier this year to do two rounds of the EnduroGP, but it all got cancelled because of my injury. I’m trying to look into going over there later on this year, so we’ll see what happens. I’m keen to get over there to see where I’m at, it’s always been a dream of mine to go over and race the world championship.

Image: Foremost Media.

If you stay in Australia next year, what are the chances we see you step up to either the E2 or E3 class?

I’m not really sure to be honest. I don’t really think I’m big enough to be riding a 450 yet. That’s my honest opinion anyway, I don’t think I’m strong enough to be able to ride a 450 properly. I think I’ve got the speed, but at the moment, I think I’m faster and more confident on a 250 in the bush. Maybe in a few years’ time if I stayed in Australia and got a little bit bigger, but right now I think we’ll just stay in the E1 class and see what happens.

What are your thoughts on Australia not fielding an International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) team for the men’s classes?

It’s quite disappointing really. I think everyone was really keen, and Australia has some of the best enduro racers in the world. We’ve had some big names like Matt Phillips, Daniel Milner and Chucky (Daniel Sanders) that have gotten their names out there from having a solid showing at the ISDE. I think it’s one of those races that everyone wants to do, so it’s unfortunate that it couldn’t go ahead this year, but hopefully, we get it back on track next year and can get a bit more money together, cause it costs a lot of money and it’s a pretty big commitment to go over there. So hopefully they can sort something out and we can all go over next year.