AUSTRALIAN ENDURO CHAMPIONSHIP | Milner Maintains Momentum

Jye Dickson takes his maiden win but a legend still leads the way

The introduction of a Pro Enduro Title into the revamped Australian Off-Road Championships has verified Daniel Milner as Australia’s pre-eminent enduro rider of the past decade, with outright victory in almost 90 per cent of all events contested since his return from the US in 2016.

The supremacy of the DM31 KTM Team appeared set to continue this year, although that was until Wil Ruprecht returned home with an E2 Enduro World Championship Trophy in his swag, immediately signing up with Yamaha.

For the first four rounds of the year, Milner and Ruprecht swapped special test times, with Milner edging four points ahead by the time the teams arrived at Tintinara in south-east SA, a venue even drier than usual in drought.

Milner (KTM) won the hole-shot for Saturday’s cross-country event, but some confusion with the course instructions allowed Will Dennett (Yamaha) into the lead, his teammate Ruprecht in pursuit. Milner then regained the lead when both Yamahas stopped for fuel on lap three; a lead he retained after his own fuel stop the following lap.

From that point Milner ruled, accruing almost a minute lead at the finish, with Dennett holding on for second and Korey McMahon third. Ruprecht’s championship aspirations suffered a setback as he faded to fifth in what was described by all as a brutal three-hour event.

Track conditions proved just as challenging for Sunday’s sprints. However, Jye Dickson – whose previous best was a podium in Round 4 – had figured out the quickest way to slide through the silica sand, winning the first sprint by four seconds, then winning four more before the day was done. It was his (and Beta’s) first overall enduro victory in Australia. Milner won a single sprint to finish second overall for the day, with Dickson’s Beta teammate Andrew Wilksh filling the podium. Suffering badly blistered hands, Ruprecht couldn’t quite master the shifting sands, failing to crack the top 10 in any of the six sprints.

With six rounds still to be held, Milner may not have it all his own way, but if consistency is the key, the enduromeister is headed for an unprecedented sixth outright AORC title.

GARDINER on the go

The only AORC/ENDURO competitor holding more outright titles than Milner is Jessica Gardiner; eight-time Outright Women’s Champion. In 2025, with her protege and former JGR teammate Danielle McDonald racing overseas, Gardiner won three of the first four rounds before taking on the sands of Tintinara. Here she blitzed the five-lap cross-country enduro by almost 10min over Emilie Karlsson and Madi Simpson, then finished Sunday’s sprints by a margin of 2min. A ninth outright title is already in sight.

AUS PRO ENDURO AFTER SIX ROUNDS