Sunday, February 27, 2011

PRESS RELEASE:

PRICE FIRES BACK AT YAMAHA AORC OPENER, DAY 2

Motorex KTM Off-Road Team’s Toby Price (far right) has won the second round of the 2011 Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) after a disaster in the first round the day before at Bulahdelah NSW.

Making a costly mistake while in the lead, Price ran out of fuel in the first round’s gruelling Cross Country format, leaving him with a disappointing DNF result.

In Sunday’s race, however, Price certainly made up for it racing the tough Sprint format with times consistently faster than even the closest competitors in all five Sprint races, including Yamaha’s Chris Hollis and KTM’s Jarrod Bewley who rounded out the top three outright places for the day.

In the E1 class KTM’s Ben Grabham picked up the pace and took the top place on the podium ahead of Yamaha’s Stefan Merriman and Tom McCormack.

Price’s domination continued from his outright results in the E2 class, leading Hollis and Husqvarna’s Glenn Kearney – who recovered from mechanical issues at the first round to take third place at round two.

KTM’s Bewley was top finisher in the E3 class, ahead of an impressive performance from Yamaha’s Matt Phillips and Husaberg rider Geoff Braico.

David Cash (Yamaha) took out the Masters Class ahead of Trent Lean (Suzuki) and Glen Charlton (Yamaha) following the withdrawal of Yamaha team boss Geoff Ballard.

Husqvarna rider Damien Smith triumphed in the Veterans Class, ahead of Garry Dukes (Husaberg) and Adam Schneller (KTM).

In the Women’s class, it was a clean sweep of blue bikes with reigning champ and Yamaha rider Jess Gardiner taking top honours ahead of Swedish import Emelie Karlsson and Jemma Wilson.

In the Juniors Brendon Walther (Yamaha), New Zealand local Scott Sowry (Kawasaki), Wayde Carter (Honda) and Callan Hayes (Yamaha) were all successful in their individual classes with full results can be found on the Series web site at www.ma.org.au/aorc.

Speaking after the event, Series Co-ordinator Denise Hore said it was an incredible outcome for the National championship.

“This weekend was absolutely massive for the 2011 Yamaha AORC,” Ms Hore said.

“Nearly 300 competitors took to the track in the combined national and state rounds, and the Central Cost Dirt Riders Club did an incredible job putting the event together and we can’t thank them enough.

“Special thanks must also go to series sponsors Yamaha Australia and Ballard’s Off-Road, all the MA officials who worked tirelessly in the heat, Motorcycling NSW and their Enduro Management Committee for agreeing to have the National championship rounds co-incide with the State event, and to all the competitors for getting behind the Series and making it one of the biggest in years.”

Check out videos from the first weekend of racing on the AORC Facebook fan page and for more information on the 2011 Yamaha AORC check out the www.ma.org.au/aorc web site and the series’ Facebook page for the latest photo galleries and videos.

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