After eight exhilarating rounds across three states, the final battle for the 2011 Yamaha Australian Off Road Championship (AORC) crown is set to fire in Salisbury in New South Wales this coming long weekend.

The final two days of the series will put the best Aussie Enduro riders through their paces on Salisbury’s cross country and sprint tracks as they vie for the deciding Championship points.

Ballard’s Yamaha Off-Road rider and 2008 champion Chris Hollis enters the weekend sitting atop a tight Championship leaderboard on a blistering 166 points.

Hollis will feel the heat from fellow Ballard’s rider Matt Phillips, who is perched in second place on 153 points after snaring the last four consecutive rounds outright, rocketing up the ranks.

The pair will be closely tailed across the terrain by teammate Stefan Merriman, who has garnered 144 points across a solid series.

Motorex KTM’s Jarrod Bewley, who claimed Outright second in 2010, is sitting in fourth on 140 points, with a mere four points separating him from Merriman.

Husqvarna is holding fifth and sixth, with Glenn Kearney holding fifth position on 125 points after taking third and fourth outright in rounds seven and eight respectively. His teammate Bartosz Obluki is holding sixth with 108 points in the bag.

Motorex KTM’s Ben Grabham, who has battled a wrist injury during the season, starts the event in seventh on 84 points, with Daniel Milner of Christensen’s Motorcycles clamouring just behind on 82.

Reigning champion Toby Price of Motorex KTM is sitting in ninth place with 75 points ahead of the deciding rounds, having had his hopes of retaining the crown dashed after sustaining an injury on the Callington track in round six which forced him to sit out the penultimate weekend.

Yamaha rider and five times Aussie Champion Kirk Hutton rounds out the leading 10, having clocked up 63 points throughout the championship.

The final rounds of the 2011 AORC will be hosted by the Dungog Motorcycle Club at Salisbury in NSW on 2-3 October.