Image: Adam Riemann.

Three weeks after a spectacular debut win in the Finke Desert Race, the KTM Desert Racing Team has turned its attention to the second annual desert racing Tri-Series, which begins this weekend with the Kumarina 500 in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The KTM Desert Racing Team’s manager, four-time Finke winner and Dakar Rally finisher Ben Grabham won the inaugural Tri-Series, in the process claiming the $20,000 bonus for winning each round.

“We’re coming off a fantastic result at Finke and we’re all looking forward to the Tri-Series,” Grabham said. “I had a pretty good run here last year. Hopefully my body holds up a bit better on this race and I can challenge the other boys a little bit more than at Finke since we don’t have the 800 horsepower buggies going through ahead destroying the track.

While the bonus returns for 2014, Grabbo may have reduced his odds of winning it by inviting his two young charges, recent Finke Desert Race winner Toby Price, and lightning fast up-and-comer Ivan Long, who was third outright at Finke.

“Toby’s in awesome form, he won Finke and he’s leading the AORC, so you can never count him out on any terrain even if he hasn’t seen it before,” Grabham added. “Same with Ivan, I’m sure he’s going to be more than happy to hold it on. Once you’ve done a bit of desert riding it’s all pretty similar.”

Price will enter the weekend with an open mind, in what is one of the busiest stretches of the season for the versatile multiple-time Australian champion.

“It’s a new experience for me and we’re looking forward to getting over there and trying to pick it up as quickly as possible and get a good result,” Price said. “I’ve never ventured that high up in Western Australia so it’s definitely a bonus to the job I have with KTM Racing, you get to see a lot of the countryside of Australia and sometimes even the world.

“We’ll get to sleep in our swags at the race as well so that’s always good fun, plus I get to race the 500 again. The KTM 500 EXCs of the desert team are unbelievable bikes and every time I get on that bike it’s always a grin from ear to ear.”

The series was a successful and exciting new concept when it began in 2013 and will comprise those same three events over the next two months; the Kumarina 500 near Newman, the Doorawarrah 500 near Carnarvon and a finale near Port Hedland, called the Indee 500.

The format for each round will see three days of desert racing action with a 10-kilometre Prologue on the Friday followed by a 500km event stretched over two days.