The 2013 Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) ventured down to Hedley, around 200km from Melbourne in Victoria on 25-26 May for rounds five and six of the 12-round series.

With the master of class Toby Price down and out for the remaining of the 2013 season after his AMA Hare and Hound get off, the question was who would take over his mantle peace and write their name on the AORC crown for this year.

Come Sunday afternoon it was CDR Yamaha Off-Road’s Daniel Milner who took control of the title charge going into round seven and eight.

Milner will carry a 10-point advantage over Price’s Motorex KTM Off-Road Racing teammate Chris Hollis with Green moving into third on 105 points.

Round five on Saturday saw riders take on the 15km sandy soil terrain for the three cross country format that saw Active8 Yamaha Yamalube hotshot rider Josh Green snare the overall win with a total race time of 2:44:54.958.

Following Green was Glenn Kearney on his Husqvarna TE-250R 19.257 seconds back. A very solid third place went to Milner as he guided his YZ250F to an overall time of 2:49:17.512. Filling in for Price at the Motorex KTM Off-Road Racing team is Geoff Braico who finished fourth with Jarrod Bewley in fifth.

The six heat sprint format for round six on Sunday saw Milner take full control and made the round his own by by winning all six heats and beating Green by 43.712 seconds overall.

It was damage limitation for the 2011 AORC champion Chris Hollis who suffered a minor hick up to his championship on Saturday when he retired just after one lap with a pinched nerve in his back.

Hollis returned to ride through the pain on Sunday and put on an impressive performance job to regroup and stick his KTM on the third step of the podium in round six.

“My weekend was a tough one actually” said Hollis. “Yesterday I got ten minutes into the three hour race and pinched a nerve in my lower back and lost a bit of feeling in my legs and then they locked up and I couldn’t use them, so I DNF.

“Today was a lot better but I still had a few dramas with my legs. I’m happy with third, today was all about what points I could get really, I honestly didn’t think I would get third today, so I’m pretty happy about it.”

Happy with his weekend, round six winner Milner felt that his bike setup was perfect on Sunday as he swept all six heats.

“The weekend went pretty well,” said Milner. “The cross-country on the Saturday we had a bad start but we caught back up and got into third and finished strong with a third place overall so I was happy with a podium.

“Today we had another good day, won every heat and the CDR Yamaha Off-Road YZ250F just felt awesome. The bike just did everything I wanted it to do all day.”

Green feels his weekend was a successful one after earning his first-ever Outright win and backing it up with solid performances during Sunday’s round six.

“I had a pretty good weekend. It was really rough conditions, real hard going,” said Green. “I had a pretty strong start for the cross-country and just pushed away and settled into a rhythm and just pushed that for the whole race and I ended up passing Glenn with two laps to the end, and got the win, so wrapped with that.

“Then today it was really rough, and every ones hands are blistered, so I just pushed on and tried to do consistent laps all day and I got the win in 450 class and second overall, so I’m happy.”

Other highlights for the round was twenty year old superstar Jessica Gardiner of the Ballards Motorex Offroad Team who touched down in Melbourne after returning from Europe late Thursday night.

A bit of jet lag from the trip didn’t look like it affected her what so ever as she ruled the roost in the women’s class winning both rounds with ease.

Gardiner will set off again in two weeks-time to compete in round three of the women’s enduro championship which will be held in Romania on 15-16 June.

The 2013 Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship will make its way to Coonawarra in South Australia for rounds seven and eight on 29-30 June.

Click here for detailed results