Price takes first AORC round win,Hollis and Braico nab E1 and E3

MSC Kawasaki’s Toby Price took his first Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) win of his career today at round seven held at Cherrabah Resort near Warwick, QLD.

The 22-year-old from Singleton (NSW) beat the rest of the field by 46-seconds. Current Outright point’s leader Stefan Merriman (Ballard’s Wellard Yamaha) finished the day in sixth Outright and third in Championship E2.

“It’s been a good weekend so far, so hopefully we can carry on with it tomorrow,” Price said.

“The bike’s working awesome and this year the whole team... they’ve done a great job and
it’s really good to be up on the top this time.”

Price hit a tree in his first lap of the day, ‘smashing up’ one of his fingers.

“My finger should be all good for tomorrow, I’ll just ice it up and try to get back up on the podium,” he said.

The only rider to give Price a run for his money today was Husqvarna’s Chris Hollis (from Port Macquarie, NSW) who won two of the seven heats and finished second Outright and first in Championship E1.

Hollis competed in Championship E2 on a 450cc machine for the first six rounds of the championship.

Switching to the 250cc bike for today’s event saw a return of the reigning AORC champ’s pack-leading speed

“I had a lot better day than I’ve been having the last few rounds... the 250F’s an awesome bike,” Hollis said.

“It’s good to be straight up the front on it pretty much straight away and stay up the front on it, Toby and I were pretty close there for a while.

“I feel a lot more comfortable on this bike and my speed is back to normal, where it should be.”

Hollis now sits in 4th overall in the Championships though will slip down the E2 class by virtue of not riding an E2 bike (over 250) in rounds 7 and 8.

AORC Round 5 & 6 Murray Bridge, SA

ROUND 6, SUNDAY

In a repeat of the previous day's results, Merriman took the win followed by Price and Boyle.

“It went pretty good today, it was hard work though,” Merriman, from Nelson’s Bay (NSW) said. “I was a bit tired from yesterday and doing another eight laps of the eight-minute course today, it really took it out of ya, the whoops were pretty big. I managed to pull away slowly from Toby... it was hard work and the bike went really well. I’m really happy with how everything went, the team and everything - everything was great.”

Yamaha AORC Championship Top-10 (after round six)
1. Stefan Merriman 138 points
2. AJ Roberts 117
3. Jarrod Bewley 116
4. Toby Price 114
5. Ben Grabham 94
6. Chris Hollis 90
7. Ben Kearney 85
8. Peter Boyle 79
9. Kirk Hutton 67
10. Geoff Braico 60

ROUND 5, SATURDAY

Merriman took the win by 12 seconds over early leader Toby Price, rounding out the top three was Honda's Peter Boyle.

“I’m really happy with the win, but I didn’t think it was going to happen this morning, I was riding pretty rubbish really,” Merriman said. “I got a bit of a rhythm and then started to catch them, by the fourth lap I was starting to catch up and eventually just got them at the end.”

Price said his strong start had given him hope for his first Outright round win of the season and his career.

“I got through pretty good, only a few little mistakes and a couple little crashes, but other than that it was really good,” Price said. “It was looking pretty good there at the start of the day but as always Merriman puts on the charge at the end."

Merriman Emerges Victorious after Heated Battle at AORC

Date: 9 March, 2009

Ballard’s Wellard Yamaha racer Stefan Merriman won a heated battle today with defending Yamaha Australian Off-Road (AORC) Champion, Chris Hollis, to take the Outright victory of the championship’s second round at Wauchope (near Port Macquarie, NSW).

Merriman, who also won round one yesterday, finished the day 7-seconds ahead of Husqvarna-pilot Hollis after the eight ‘sprint’ laps.

“I’m really happy. It was a great result for my first race back here in Australia,” Merriman said.

“The guys are really fast, I expected that Chris would be really fast on his home track and he really had me right to the last test.”

Merriman now leads the point’s race for Championship Outright and the Championship E2 class.

Rounds 3 and 4 Blayney NSW

Despite a flying start to round three of the AORC, Hollis’ efforts in the grueling conditions of Blayney were suppressed by recurring crashes midway through the event. Only 5-seconds behind race leader AJ Roberts (after the first 14-minute sprint) Hollis’ chance of a podium finish were lost after having to remount and fire up his bike in the confines of a steep tree-lined hill. So challenging were some of the sections, that rider’s were at risk of becoming stranded on the sloping hills if they ventured off the race line. Luckily for Hollis, he found enough traction with his TE 450 to climb back on to the narrow ruts and resume the sprint.

“Yeah, it was a disappointing day coming unstuck in two tests, but I just tried to get back into a rhythm and regain lost time. I think I was a bit too cautious after dropping the bike though, as I wasn’t up to my usual pace until the last two tests of the day.”

Hollis finished the day in 5th outright behind Stefan Merriman, who had looked to be making a steady return after injuring his shoulder.
Along with further disappointment for Hollis, round four dished up some controversy regarding the integrity of the course layout. Sections were so
chopped from day one, some vague re-routing of the course for day two left room for dubious hot-lines. Hollis was left feeling less than impressed upon conclusion of the event. "Well, I was basically out of the running after another stupid crash, which cost me heaps of time trying to get a branch out of my triple clamps. Besides that though, it was disheartening to see the amount of alternate routes showing up everywhere – if you didn’t walk the track and commit to some cunning lines, then you weren’t in the race. I actually felt good in the tests and the bike was working fine, but my times were really off the pace." While it’s still early days, Hollis sits in 6th outright (also E2) for the overall championship.