By RUSSELL COLVIN
WITH the Three Bridges Yamaha Victorian Off-Road Championship (VORC) round cancelled due to 30mm of rain last Wednesday and Thursday, round three and four of the championship was moved to Pakenham at the eleventh hour.
Much thanks went to the hard work from the MCRCV, Kooweerup and Corner Inlet motorcycle clubs, which pulled together to enable the rounds to still go ahead.
Daniel ‘Chucky’ Sanders, 21, from Three Bridges, was nothing but all class in Saturday’s three-hour cross-country format event, when he stormed to victory aboard his KTM 300EXC with a total time of 2hr30:12.614, 3min96.316 ahead of Mark Grove.
Saturday’s round win marked Sanders’ 14th career win in the Pro class since he made the step up in 2012.
Sanders told the Mail after the race; “It sure was a good day, that’s for sure. Obviously when you win it’s fun and you enjoy it a bit more.”
“The grass track was sloppy, but it was a lot of fun,” explained Sanders, who hit the lead early in the race.
“When I got to the front, I just focused on maintaining my lines and rolling off consistent lap times which was good enough to come out on top today.”
Sanders, who tops the championship tally in this year’s Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC), also said the first cross-country race of the year was good training for the upcoming cross-country format for the next round of the AORC at Hedley, at the end of July.
The ups-and-downs of motorsport racing was proven on Sunday in the sprint style format.
After proving to be the man to catch in the opening two heats, drama struck for the reigning two times Pro and Outright VORC champion in the third heat when his rear tyre blew off the rim, which resulted him plummeting down to twelfth position, two minutes behind the overall race leader.
From there it was all about playing catch up, which Sanders said he quite enjoyed the challenge as it was a bit of a change to what he is normally used to.
Sanders topped the time sheets in the remaining four heats which saw him climbing back up the order to finish second overall, 1min12.783 behind Jack Simpson.
“It was a lot of fun out there today,” said Sanders at the conclusion of the day.
“While I did not win today, it was a good challenge to come through the pack and get back to second place.
“It’s a shame about the rear tyre, but that’s racing.
“Main thing is we have extended our championship lead, so that is the positive we can take from this round.”
Meanwhile, 18-year-old Lyndon Snodgrass from Gladysdale, improved on his first VORC round by snaring two solid third place finishes aboard his First Class Motorcycles/Husqvarna Australia TE300.
Snodgrass finished 10.872 seconds behind Grove in Saturday’s cross-country round, while round four saw him finishing 15.572 seconds behind Sanders.
“The weekend went really well,” beamed Snodgrass.
“I said before this weekend, round one was a ‘character building round’ just because I did struggle a bit.
“So it’s nice to leave the weekend with two third places and to be sitting third in the championship fight.
“There’s still a long way to go in this championship, so it’s not over by any means.”
Sanders leads the VORC title fight on 72-points, 11 points clear from Simpson with Snodgrass in third on 55-points.
The VORC circus now heads to Leongatha, which will take place on 18 June.
