Toby Price wraps up fifth AORC title
An eighth outright victory for the season has seen Toby Price secure the 2015 Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) title at Kyogle on Sunday.
The Motorex KTM Off-Road Racing Team rider claimed his fifth AORC crown with two rounds remaining in the series, courtesy of his win in Round 10.
Toby Price – KTM 500 EXC – “We’re stoked. That’s the result we were looking for, and we had a good weekend. Saturday I didn’t quite fire into gear straight away and there were a few mistakes. We weren’t allowed to walk the track and it was meant to be cross country, but it ended up being sprints, so I came in not too prepared on Saturday and it took me a little bit to get going. But we still had a pretty good result finishing second yesterday and coming away with the win today and my fifth Australian off-road championship is just a dream come true. It’s been a great year and I can’t thank the whole KTM team enough, Jeff Leisk and Grabbo and all the boys, Mick and Trav and Blizzard, Tim Cole, everyone’s been an awesome help this year and made it all that little bit easier for myself to worry about what I’ve got to do. So, yeah, unreal!”
Ben Grabham, KTM Team Manager – “Any weekend Toby can wrap up the championship with two rounds still to go is an awesome weekend, so that was amazing. It was one of those tricky weekends where it could have turned bad pretty quick, it was fantastic to help Toby win his fifth outright AORC, and seeing he’s going overseas next year it’s even better. The track was tricky for a big-bore four stroke, but he just took it a bit easier and as the day went on got faster and faster. By the end he was only three seconds behind, so today with the same tracks he had mega speed behind him and won one by 14 seconds which is just huge! In terms of individual performances we’ve had better, but it was solid. Chucky had an awesome result with third yesterday behind Toby and Hollis, and today there was a few problems but he soldiered on. Tye went great again. It might take him the year to find his feet in tricky off-road conditions like this, but he was still solid both days. Toby was just smart this weekend, it would have been easy for him to push too hard yesterday in the mud and have a big one, but he’s done everything he needed to wrap up the championship which is pretty amazing.”
Price (who also took out the E3 Class) entered Sunday’s round only needing to finish ahead of Active8 Yamaha’s Josh Green (E1 Class winner), who ended up third outright behind Saturday’s Round 9 winner, CDR Yamaha’s Chris Hollis (E2 Class victor).
Chris Hollis – “It wasn’t an easy weekends’ riding, that’s for sure,” Hollis said at the end of competition. “The rain on Friday night made things really difficult as it was muddy and slippery in places while other areas were super soft and boggy. You really had to stay focused and keep your momentum. It didn’t rain for Sunday but the course was still tough to ride from the day prior. It was good to get a win on Saturday and battle with Toby. The last couple of rounds have been between us so it was good to pinch one off him and get the CDR Yamaha out front. Sunday he was just a bit quicker than me, but I’m happy with how things went and will continue to work hard and finish the championship strongly.”
Price’s fifth AORC title caps off what has been an amazing fortnight for the 27-year-old, following the announcement of his two-year deal with the KTM Factory Red Bull Rally Racing squad from next season.
Rounding out the top five was Price’s Motorex KTM Off-Road Racing teammate Daniel Sanders and Husqvarna Off-Road Team veteran Glenn Kearney.
Daniel ‘Chucky’ Sanders – KTM 300 EXC – “I’m happy to get these results here for sure; when the rain came in I got a big grin on the face. There was a little confusion with how we were going to run it after it all got wet, so we canned the cross country and ran six sprints on Saturday. The first one I was second outright – beat Pricey and stuff in the nice technical. It was a bit like home with the hard-packed clay so that was sort of in my favour. Today I hadn’t crashed until the last test today, where I crashed twice and still managed to get fourth overall! I was sort of amazed by that. I wish I hadn’t crashed, to show that I could ride a pretty gnarly track. That was sort of a confidence booster, but it goes to show, you’ve got to concentrate until you cross the finish line.”
Glenn Kearney (Husqvarna FE501): “The Kyogle club salvaged a good weekend. They had an awesome, 30 minute cross-country loop set out, but it poured rain all Friday night so by Saturday morning there was no way we were going to get around it. They cut it down and salvaged a sprint round out of it and we ended up getting plenty of riding in. It ended up really slippery and boggy with quite deep ruts, so it was quite a challenging weekend which was good. Yesterday I was third in E3 and sixth outright, but Lachy rode better and he beat me by a point overall for fifth. A great battle. Today Lachy struggled a little bit, and I had a better day coming to grips with the new brake setup so I got a few third outrights in some tests – close to Toby and Hollis, so I was very happy with that – I just ended up missing out on fourth for the day, and I got third in the class again. Kevin and Christian did an awesome job here, they had their hands full with the mud every time we came in, and had to clean bikes all day long for two days.”
Avtive8 Yamaha’s Beua Ralston was sixth on Sunday while Tye Simmonds took seventh place after having a troublesome Saturday.
Tye Simmonds – KTM 450 EXC “Let’s not talk about today, yesterday was pretty good. To me I do a lot better in the open tracks, so when we started in the plantation yesterday and it was really tight, I struggled there. It bucketed down the night before so it made it very slippery. My times in the open tracks were saving me after my times in the tight stuff, but I clawed back to fourth outright yesterday, and second in class. Today a few boys stepped it up and I was getting smoked, just a long way off the pace. The bike was running unreal, it was just me. I obviously need to do a little bit more riding in that tighter stuff.”
Lachlan Stanford rode the Husky FE350 to eighth outright on Sunday after a fifth on Saturday.
Lachy Stanford (Husqvarna FE350): “It was a good weekend, I liked the track. Kyogle club did an awesome job to still put it on because we had a lot of rain on Friday night. They canned the cross-country because no one would have got around, but they made two really good sprint tracks. Yesterday I ended up fifth outright and third in class in E2. My pace was there, but today wasn’t a very good day – I just couldn’t get to where I wanted to be at the front of the pack. I felt okay but I think the tracks were a little bit harder today and I just rode a little bit tight. I want to get to the front pretty desperately though, so, maybe next round.”
In the Transmoto 19 & Under Class, Saturday’s top three result was reversed with MX1 Australia Suzuki Off-Road Team rider Wil Ruprecht improving on his third place to take out the round on Sunday.
Ruprecht swapped spots on the podium with Bolton’s KTM rider Tom Mason (third), while Kawasaki Junior KX Squad’s Lyndon Snodgrass claimed his second runner-up placing for the weekend.
Yamaha Racing’s dominance in the Women’s Class continued with their fourth 1-2-3 result in succession.
Tayla Jones took another step closer to claiming her first season AORC class championship with win number ten for the year, while Jemma Wilson and Emelie Karlsson again completed the remaining spots on the podium.
Kirk Hutton had already wrapped up the Veterans title coming into the weeked, but like Jones he also pushed his class victory tally into double figures for the year. In the Masters, MX1 Australia Suzuki Off-Road Team’s Trent Lean will head into the final two rounds of the AORC at his home track full of confidence following his double success in Kyogle.
In the juniors, Saturday’s winners backed it up again, with Husqvarna’s Fraser Higlett (J4), Yamaha’s Michael Driscoll (J3) and Kawasaki Junior KX Squad’s Mitchell Brierley (J2) all making it two from two for the weekend.
The 2015 Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship now heads to its final destination in Monkerai, New South Wales on August 15 and 16 for Rounds 11 and 12 of the series.
2015 Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship – Provisional Points after 10 of 12 rounds
- Toby Price 240
- Josh Green 185
- Daniel Sanders 178
- Chris Hollis 165
- Tye Simmonds 155
- Beau Ralston 151
- Glenn Kearney 143
- Lachlan Stanford 130.
**Round 10 Outright Top 10**
1. Toby Price (Motorex KTM Off-Road Team)
2. Chris Hollis (CDR Yamaha)
3 Josh Green (Active8 Yamaha)
4. Daniel Sanders (Motorex KTM Off-Road Team)
5. Glenn Kearney (Husqvarna Off-Road Team)
6. Beau Ralston (Active8 Yamaha)
7. Tye Simmonds (Motorex KTM Off-Road Team)
8. Lachlan Stanford (Husqvarna Off-Road Team)
9. Scott Keegan (Husqvarna Privateer)
10. Stefan Granquist (Yamaha Privateer)
**Round 9 (Sprint) Outright Top 10**
1. Chris Hollis (CDR Yamaha, E2)
2. Toby Price (Motorex KTM Off-Road Team, E3)
3. Daniel Sanders (Motorex KTM Off-Road Team, E3)
4. Tye Simmonds (Motorex KTM Off-Road Team, E2)
5. Lachlan Stanford (Husqvarna Off-Road Team, E2)
6. Glenn Kearney (Husqvarna Off-Road Team, E3)
7. Josh Green (Active8 Yamaha, E1)
8. Scott Keegan (Husqvarna Privateer, E3)
9. Stefan Granquist (Yamaha Privateer, E3)
10. Geoff Braico (KTM Privateer, E2)
