As suspected, the Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship has been blown wide open after the subsequent injury of Motorex KTM Off Road Racing’s Toby Price.

At Corner Inlet’s fifth and sixth rounds in Victoria over the weekend, two brand new winners for the 2013 season broke through in Josh Green and Daniel Milner.

Green is an interesting story and he’s been a revelation early this season. His round five Outright win was a huge confidence booster in the Cross Country event, plus to go 1-1 in E2 puts him right in title contention for the Active8 Yamaha team aboard the WR450F.

“This is a pretty big achievement for me,” Green said. “I’ve fought for this for a long time. I’m getting more and more comfortable on the WR450F and we’ve been doing some testing and making a few small adjustments from stock, which have helped a lot.

“After my Outright win yesterday and my class win today, I couldn’t ask for a much better weekend. It was an awesome track and a good set up. The track was really tough after getting chewed up yesterday so it made for a good, challenging event and I like that.

“I’m looking forward to the next rounds of the AORC and hopefully gaining some more points towards the championship. I’m sitting third Outright now behind Daniel Milner and Chris Hollis… we’ve got a bit of a break again until the South Australian rounds, but I’ll be keeping busy.”

Interestingly, many in the off-road ranks including Green will now turn their attention to the Finke Desert Race in Alice Springs – one of the most anticipated events on the schedule.

Sunday saw Daniel Milner break through for CDR Yamaha’s first big AORC win Outright, aboard the YZ250F. That win in particular was impressive against larger capacity bikes, and he too will gain a lot from that result.

The big surprise was Chris Hollis, Motorex KTM’s two-time champion who was expected to pick up right where Price left off at the front of the pack. Unfortunately, a rare back injury ruled him out on Saturday, but he was able to salvage what he could be riding through pain on Sunday.

“I slipped a disc or pinched a nerve or something on Saturday about 10 minutes into the three-hour and my legs began spasming, cramping and carrying on in a lot of pain,” the ultra-fit Hollis said. “I didn’t know what was happening so I lay down beside the track and the ambos came and got me.

“It all came back after half an hour and I stretched a lot last night but still had dramas today. At least with the sprints being only nine minutes long I was able to salvage some points for second in class and third outright. I’ll see the specialist tomorrow and get some scans to find out what’s going on.”

Now, the other guy who has really stepped it up on the TE 250R from Husqvarna is Glenn Kearney. He’s been consistently quick all year and went 2-4 Outright over the weekend, including the E1 victory on Saturday.

Right now, these four mentioned have proven the class of the field and we could see them mixing it up for the win on any given weekend. It’s exciting stuff and a great mix of youth and experience.

“It was a tough weekend with the sandy track getting really rough – the 14km Cross Country course was a great layout,” Kearney explained. “Coming into the weekend carrying some injuries I was a little concerned on how I would do.

The Cross Country went well where I was able to lead the majority of the race, battling with Josh Green who eventually took the outright win over me, though I was happy to take the E1 victory. Sunday I was feeling the effects of Saturday’s race and struggled through the day to finish second to Daniel Milner in E1 and fourth Outright.”

Of course there will be more faces up on the podium throughout the season, including Geoff Braico as he settles into Price’s 500 EXC and former champion AJ Roberts. The pair split wins in E3 over the weekend, capping off great racing across the board.