The ShopYamaha Off Road Team battled their way through a dry and dusty weekend at Queensland Moto Park to finish RD 7&8 of the AORC.
With plenty of dirtbike action happening in South East Queensland on the weekend, over 200 riders including the ShopYamaha team rolled into QMP on Friday, ready to pick up the battle for the Australian Off Road Championship (AORC).
Kyron Bacon barely got home to his native Tasmania after a five week trip to Europe, before repacking the gear bag and heading north to take up his quest for another E1 championship. Bacon started the weekend on the back foot with a fall in the very early stages on Saturday morning and lost considerable time as he got going again.
Physically, he was ok, but the bike was a little beat up and he couldn’t attend to it until he was back at the Parc-Ferme to assess the damage and what needed to be fixed. It was a busy period as he checked over the bike, and his body, before heading back out again and trying to recover the lost time.
He was running as outside the top ten Outright but clawed his way back finish fourth outright on the day as well as snare a second place finish in the E1 class.
Sunday fared better but not without some drama and Bacon was able to power his way to victory in class and a top three result outright. Again, a fall in one of the tests saw him land awkwardly aggravating a hand injury which will need to be assessed during the week.
The results weekend saw him maintain the lead in the E1 class and keep a nine-point margin over his nearest rival, Korey McMahon.
“It was a good weekend without being great as I was a little off the pace in some areas and looking back, I think I know what I need to work on,” Bacon opens. “The dirt on the weekend was dry, hard and slippery and I tried to be too aggressive on it in my riding when I should have tried to keep momentum and carry speed.
“Instead, I was charging corners, being hard on the throttle and clutch and I was just lighting up the rear tyre. I needed to open the corners up, ride with some flow and not try and force it so that’s something I can learn for next time we are faced with conditions like this.
“Thanks to the team again for all their hard work on the weekend. I will get this hand checked out as soon as I can to find out what’s going on as we have a three week turn around before the next round in South Australia,” he ends.
Will Dennett put together another consistent weekend and despite not featuring on the podium, was able to gain valuable points to stay in the E2 championship fight.
Dennett finished fourth on both days with smart, mature and consistent racing but wasn’t able to crack the top three in class. He finished inside the top six outright both days, still an outstanding effort for a rider his age, and he continues to gain knowledge and experience at every round he does.
The consistent weekend meant he also holds onto his second place in the E2 class after eight rounds and there is no doubt he wants to keep improving before the season ends.
“It was a pretty good weekend for me, all things considered,” Dennett begins. “I had some good test times throughout the weekend on some of the tests, but couldn’t match it with the guys in the others so it gives me something to think about for the next couple of weeks.
“The conditions were tricky today as it was so dry and it did get beat up in sections so you had to stay focused or it was easy to come unstuck. For me, I raced at a level I felt I could do without going down and while that doesn’t work every weekend, I was able to get by this weekend and keep second place in the championship.
“We are down to South Australia next where the dirt is a little softer than here, so looking forward to that and hoping to get back on the podium again there,” he said.
Rounds nine and ten of the Yamaha Australian Off Road Championship fire up on August 24-25 in South Australia.