The star pairing of Kyron Bacon and Josh Green at the ShopYamaha Off-Road Racing Team finished the 2023 season strongly with another impressive weekend at the final round of the Australian Off-Road Championship in Dungog.
Between the duo, they finished with two round victories, a second place and a 1-2 finish in Outright honours. Not a bad result in anyone's language. To view the bLU cRU round review of the Dungog AORC: https://youtu.be/JuKN8U3cUIE
Kyron Bacon returned in the days leading up to the Dungog around after a three-week stint in Europe racing the Portugal rounds of the World Enduro Championships. His speed and race craft impressed many as he improved with every outing, culminating in a class victory at the final round in the J1 class.
Upon his return it was straight to Dungog and back into AORC mode. Bacon picked up the E1 class win both days comfortably and finished second in Outright honours. He was comfortably ahead of his E1 rivals and was right in the battle of Outright with only a test each day putting him on the back foot.
Still, it has been a successful year for the Tasmanian despite not retaining his E1 and Outright championship. A mid-season injury took its toll, and he missed a round of the AORC, while the riding and travel in Europe left him a little flat for Dungog.
He finished third in the E1 class, winning every round he contested and charged to a second place finish in Outright and showed he is still the man to beat in Australian Enduro.
“It’s been a long and busy year but still satisfying in many ways,” Bacon starts. “To be able to get my way back to third in E1 after missing a couple of rounds is good and I was only six points away from winning the class. Second Outright is also a good result so while I don’t keep my number one, I did everything I could to get the best results possible.
“It’s time to take a bit of a break from racing and recover from the last few months. Thank you to AJ, the ShopYamaha team and all our sponsors for their support in 2023.”
Josh Green is the 2023 AORC Outright Champion. After 13 years of trying, Green finally made it happen and can add that title to a long list of achievements he has notched up over his racing career.
Green raced with purpose on Saturday to ensure the E2 and Outright Championship were well within grasp. In fact, he secured the E2 class championship with a round to spare and Sunday was about just getting the job done and nailing down the Outright victory.
Green cruised to a sixth place round finish and with it the honour of being the best enduro rider in Australia for 2023.
“Not going to lie, pretty pumped to get this done and win the Outright championship. I have won plenty of class championships but never this, until now.
“There are so many people to thank, but I will dedicate this one to AJ who has stood by me and worked with me for over a decade, and we have been trying to win this for so long, it’s cool to finally make it happen for him,” Green ends.
2023 saw the formation of the Yamaha bLU cRU support team in off road and didn’t they make their mark in this year’s championship. All three supported riders landed on the podium in the series with Cooper Sheidow and Wil Dennett taking class victories in the E1 and EJ categories respectively, while Jett Yarnold took home third in the EJ division.
Sheidow (WSB Distributors) was in dual of death with rival Korey MacMahon all season long and it all came down to the final round. When the points were added up, the top three were separated by just six points with Sheidow edging out McMahon for the win with a fast-finishing Bacon in third.
It was a Yamaha 1-3 in the EJ (Under 18) class with Dennett (Lismore Motorcycles) taking the win with teammate Jett Yarnold in third. Dennett impressed in 2023 and showed he will be a force to be reckoned with when moving into the professional ranks next season, while Yarnold (SuperMoto New England) gained valuable experience in his first year of senior competition and is well placed to be the man to beat in next year’s championship.
In the junior divisions, GYYR Yamaha Junior Racing entered the off road world for the first time in 2023 with Harley Hutton and Marcus Nowland. Hutton finished fourth in the J2 class on his YZ85 but showed he had the speed and skills to be at the top of the class. He missed two rounds due to illness but won several rounds along the way and was a consistent podium finisher.
Nowland mad the step up from the 85 in 2023 and started the season on a YZ125. He then progressed to a 250F, and his learning curve was steep as he came to terms to with the increased power and weight. He rounded out the championship in fifth pace but showed flashes of brilliance along the way.