The Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship presented by MX Store notched up its 18th year in 2024 and what started out as a one-man show ended up being a thrilling chase to the final flag. It was an interesting 2024 AORC season to say the least with 2023 champion Josh Green hanging up his helmet as Champion. With no defending champ and the return of former champion Daniel Milner, tongues were wagging in the lead up to round one about who would be doing the winning.

Milner spent 2022 and 2023 racing the World Enduro Championship based in Europe. It’s well documented that Milner had a tough time racing the EnduroGP circuit and many critics were saying the two-year European experience had broken him. The same observers were also suggesting that the level of Australian racing had gone up a notch in his absence with Tasmanian duo Kyron Bacon and Jonte Reynders the two main riders to beat.

Kudos to Bacon and Reynders, they were hauling in 2023 but did the observers on the sidelines think Milner went to Europe for two years to get slower? Sure, he didn’t shine on the big stage and yeah he was two years older upon his return, but he’s a stubborn critter that has championship-winning experience. That’s always a combination to be respected.

With Green retired Will Dennett was slotted into the Shop Yamaha Off-Road Team to contest the E2 class while Bacon would remain in the E1 class where he had already enjoyed plenty of success. Andy Wilksch moved on from KTM to make way for Milner to form his own team with young Kiwi rider Tom Buxton who would contest the E1 class while Milner would line up in E2. Wilksch picked up an E2 class ride with Beta, joining Jye Dickson who would spear-head Beta’s stab at the E3 title.

Jonte Reynders was sticking with Sherco again on the 300SEF going head-to-head with Milner in the E2 class. Korey McMahon stuck to his E1 plan in the E1 class and Riley McGillivray was set to defend his E3 title aboard a KTM. If anyone was going to keep Milner away from claiming another AORC title, it looked as though Bacon and Reynders were the most likely to do so.

HOT AND SWEATY

The same Australian Off-Road Championship formula was put in place for 2024 with 12 rounds of racing over six weekends. The Championship kicked off with rounds one and two in Roma, Queensland much to the dismay of plenty of observers and riders. Roma sure is a long way from Melbourne but the weather and riding conditions were far better in Roma than anywhere in Victoria on the weekend of the opening round.

Milner put his stamp on the competition from the outset and romped home to a seemingly easy victory a minute clear of Bacon who was just four seconds ahead of Reynders. Milner repeated the lesson the next day to claim round two to put an end to any doubt about where his and his competition’s riding was at.

MISERY AT THE MOUNTAIN

Round three at Mount Misery in Victoria started off with a buzz of excitement due to Milner suffering a broken collar bone three weeks prior. Was it possible to continue winning after an injury that required surgery to repair and such short healing time?

Bacon swooped on the opportunity and topped the times outright to claim the E1 class again. Milner fought to claim E2 class honours and showed he would go down swinging if that’s what it came to. Little did we know this show of grit would come to the fore again before the season was over.

Bad luck was just around the corner for Bacon who suffered some bike issues at round four handing McMahon the E1 class win.  Milner was back on the top step outright, flexing his muscle and letting the competition know he wasn’t going anywhere. Milner romped home to claim the E2 class by a mile over Reynders after such a gnarly weekend of racing the question had to be asked. Could Milner be stopped? Fate would soon step in and give things a shakeup.

BACK ON TRACK

Edenhope in Western Victoria hosted rounds five and six with cold, sandy and dusty conditions. Milner was back on song winning outright again. The E3 class was where the main action was unfolding with the emergence of Beta rider Jye Dickson.

It was beginning to look like there was a real fight beginning to unfold in the big-bore class. Thank goodness for that because Bacon had a stranglehold on the E1 class and no one was getting near Milner in E2. If it wasn’t for Milner hurting himself, the outright title chase would be rather dull as well.

Round six saw things getting spicy between Bacon and Reynders with the Tassie lads ending the day within the same second on overall time. It was good to see some heat on the game.

The Championship racing was an all sprint format until rounds seven and eight at QMP west of the Gold Coast. A traditional time card enduro mixed things up although dust remained a constant. This is great news if you sell air-filters and filter oil but it sucks for the riders.

Milner won again quickly closing in on another AORC title but Reynders seemed to gel with the time card enduro format and inched closer to Milner’s pace. Bacon again suffered some bike drama which was all Korey McMahon needed to take another E1 class win. Beta’s Jye Dickson had found his feet and claimed another E3 win for round seven but Billy Hargy topped the E3 class for round eight. Hargy’s win added some juice to the sauce of the E3 title fight.

CARTWHEELS AND CHAOS

An old-fashioned cross country event delivered the race of the year at round nine in Kingston, South Australia. Kyron Bacon and Daniel Milner went at it for three-hours with Bacon leading the race until the very last second of the last lap where Milner made his move to snatch victory by nine seconds. It was a thrilling race.

The high of the season was followed by a big low for Milner when he binned his KTM big-time the following day and blew the Championship wide-open after a nasty crash that severely damaged his shoulder. Reynders snagged his first class win of the year while Dickson maintained the E3 title rage. Bacon took the overall ahead of Reynders. Holy hell we had a championship fight now.

The final weekend of AORC racing for 2024 took place at Nowra on the NSW south coast. This event had been five years in the making with the event being washed out each and every time. Until now.

Milner had his shoulder pieced back together for the final two rounds but it was clear he was far from his best. Reynders took the overall at round 11 and making it even more exciting was the top five riders all being within 1 minute of each other. Times were tight. It was good to see Shop Yamaha’s Will Dennett, Beta’s Andy Wilksch and Korey McMahon and Jye Dickson all in the mix.

Even more interesting was Milner finishing seventh overall for the day and fourth in E2. He was still in with a decent shot at the overall title and the E2 class championship with just one day of racing remaining. The final round was Reynders again ahead of Bacon in the overall. Milner clawed his way to fourth overall which was enough to clinch not only the E2 class championship but the overall outright win for the 2024 Championship, a gutsy effort that paid off.

BACON

Kyron Bacon made good use of the mid-season break in the AORC schedule and headed to Europe to contest the GP of Italy and the GP of Slovakia. He held his own in Italy landing on the podium on day two before clean-sweeping the Junior division in Slovakia. Bacon is still eligible for the Junior division (under 23) of EnduroGP racing in 2025 so it’s stands as a real possibility that he will not be racing AORC next year.

ON THE RISE

Jye Dickson found some form this year on the Beta RR480 Racing and managed to claim the E3 title. Dickson showed promise and could well be fighting for some higher placings in the outright ranks in 2025 should his trajectory continue. William Dennett is another rider to keep an eye on as is Jett Yarnold who topped the biggest of the Junior (under 19) AORC categories.

MILNER’S MISTAKES

If it wasn’t for Milner making two crucial mistakes causing him to crash and injure himself, the 2024 AORC season would have been all his way. Milner is a great rider who rarely comes unstuck so perhaps age did play a factor in his up-and-down season? There’s no doubt he showed a lot of grit and determination to earn the Championship in 2024 and perhaps his share of bad luck finally caught him out. If you call winning a fifth AORC bad luck, then I guess it isn’t all that bad?

A QUEEN IS CROWNED

Danielle McDonald is the new Queen of Australian Off-Road. McDonald was the stand-out rider in the Women’s division not just because she dethroned multi-time champion Jess Gardiner, but because she did in her first season out of the junior ranks. It could be said that McDonald is just getting started. Look out world.

2024 AUSTRALIAN OFF-ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

OUTRIGHT CHAMPION

Daniel Milner

E1

  1. Kyron Bacon Yamaha
  2. Korey McMahon GASGAS
  3. Tom Buxton KTM

E2

  1. Daniel Milner KTM
  2. Jonte Reynders Sherco
  3. William Dennett Yamaha

E3

  1. Jye Dickson Beta
  2. Riley McGillivray KTM
  3. Bill Hargy Husqvarna

WOMEN

  1. Danielle McDonald
  2. Jess Gardiner
  3. Ebony Nielsen

EJ

  1. Jett Yarnold
  2. Eli Tripcony
  3. Oliver Paterno

J1

  1. Koby Munro
  2. Ryder Lambing
  3. Drake Hutton

J2

  1. Levi Rossi
  2. Harley Hutton
  3. Cooper Parkes

J3

  1. Marcus Nowland
  2. Harry Gilbertson
  3. Kai Austin

J4

  1. Ollie Gear
  2. Bradley Rayner
  3. Dylan McDonald

JG

  1. Madi Simpson
  2. Jade Chellas
  3. Mia Kennedy

JJ

  1. Lachlan Devlin
  2. Thomas Hathway
  3. Banjo Sutherland

LEGENDS 50+

  1. Loui Stylianou
  2. Troy Henderson
  3. Ian Jenner

MASTERS 45+

  1. Rowan Pumpa
  2. Vito Porto
  3. Jason Hubbard

VETERNAS 35+

  1. Mark Cook
  2. Luke Stafrace
  3. Brett McDonnell

WOMEN DEVELOPMENT

  1. Shaylynne Kuhnke
  2. Charlie Emblem
  3. Emily-Rose Higgs