Kyron Bacon experienced a rollercoaster of emotions over the weekend at rounds three and four of the Australian Off Road Championship (AORC) with some scintillating performances that saw him shoot to the top but also some bad luck that took the train from the track.
Over 460 riders rolled into Mt Misery, near Ballarat in Victoria, for another weekend of exciting off road action and were met with some stunning scenery, an exceptional course and even a little rain to help keep the dust down as the field roared up and down the hills on Saturday morning.Bacon and ShopYamaha Off Road team mate, Will Dennett, were off to a solid start in the championship at the opening weekend in Roma last month, but were looking to step things up at Mt Misery and inflict a little misery on their rivals over two big days of racing.
And Bacon started handing out the misery right from the get-go. He won all seven tests in the E1 class to take the round the victory by a massive four minutes over his E1 competitors and the Outright win by 30 seconds over Daniel Milner. It was nothing short of a blistering performance and one that he was looking for a repeat of on Sunday.
And things were looking good. In the first two tests, Bacon again topped the leader board in both E1 and Outright, but it all came grinding to a halt in the third test of the day when he broke a chain while navigating his way through a rocky section on the course. He then rebounded well to win the next test and take third in the last one but the DNF in test three had a huge impact on the overall results, where he was left with sixth in class and 40th Outright.
“I went home after the opening weekend and put a lot of work into my riding, and it was so good to get a reward for it on Saturday. I felt awesome on the bike, the team had everything going smoothly and we managed to win the day in class and Outright.
“But Sunday I just had that bit of bad luck which is frustrating but that’s how off road goes. I was pushing hard through one of the rocky sections and I could feel the back end of the bike slam against some rocks and then the chain broke.
“The main thing for me was my riding and it was an improvement on the opening rounds. It was nice to get back up the front Outright and enjoy the battle with Daniel.
“We are racing again in three weeks for the next AORC, so I’m looking to keep the momentum going and getting after it again then,” Bacon said.
Will Dennett also experienced the highs and lows of racing with his two days in complete contrast with one another. Dennett started out the weekend struggling to find his flow and had several crashes as he tried to keep the pace with the leaders. He continued to battle on, and the team did a couple of changes to the bike throughout the day to improve his comfort.
He was able to grab third for the day in the E2 (450cc) class, and eighth Outright, but some distance from the leaders, but felt they were headed in the right direction with the bike changes and Sunday would be an improvement.
And it was. Dennett was racy right from the first test on Sunday and had increased his pace considerably. He notched up another third in class but much closer to the lead pair of Milner and Reynders but more importantly, took third Outright for the day in one of his best finishes of his emerging career.
“It was good to be able to turn around what started out as a rough weekend, into a good one by the end,” Dennett said from the podium. “We made a change on the bike later on the Saturday and it felt much better so on Sunday I was able to ride a little more aggressively and generate some more speed which was good.
“The team did a great job and to improve on the fly was awesome so thanks to them for having my back and getting the bike dialled in for me to suit the conditions.”
With Cooper Sheidow on the side lines with a wrist injury, Jett Yarnold was the lone ranger in the bLU cRU support team. Yarnold dominated the EJ class (Under19) at the opening weekend in Roma but struggled at Mt Misery on Saturday with the conditions and experienced some crashes seeing him finish in third for the day.
He was all about redemption on Sunday and he was out to get his name back on top in the EJ division. He came out swinging and went on win the class and finish 16th Outright in a strong performance that should boost his confidence and looking forward to the coming rounds.
Rounds five and six of the Australian Off-Road Championship stay in Victoria where they will compete at Edenhope on May 17 and 18.