Price farewells AORC in style

KTM's Toby Price blitzed the field in his trademark style to take out the 12th and final round of the 2015 Yamaha Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) in Monkerai, NSW on August 18.

Price, who will join KTM's factory rally team in 2016, signed off on an illustrious AORC journey with victory by over a minute from Yamaha pair Josh Green and Chris Hollis and Price's teammates Tye Simmonds and Daniel Sanders.

The day before, in round 11, Hollis narrowly edged out Price by six seconds in the sprint format, followed by Green, Beau Ralston (Yamaha) and Sanders.

Price completed the championship on 287pts from Green (227), Hollis (210), Saunders (210) and Simmonds (187). Price also won the class, with Hollis the victory in E2 and Green E1.

Hollis has been the big improver since missing the opening two rounds with injury.

“My form the past few rounds has been pretty good and I felt confident going into the weekend. I didn’t really have a goal for the championship but just focused on trying to win as many rounds as I could and get the best results possible," Hollis said.

“The win was good on Saturday and put me in a good position in the championship. I would love to have won the final round but it wasn’t meant to be.

“To finish where I did was pretty good considering I missed a couple of rounds and I was happy with the way both myself and the CDR Yamaha team finished off the season strongly. We both kept working hard and never slackened off and the results came our way."

With the AORC season now complete, the Australian off-road fraternity now turns its attention to the 2015 Yamaha Australian Four Day Enduro (A4DE), which will take place from October 19-24 in Wynyard, Tasmania.

Price will also compete at the A4DE before he begins an intensive testing campaign with the KTM rally team ahead of the 2016 Dakar Rally, where Price finished third as a satellite factory rider in 2015.