KTM Australia press release:

KTM Motocross Racing Team rider Kirk Gibbs gave the Austrian Marque its first Premier class national championship win since 2002 when he wrapped up this year’s MX Nationals championship in the first moto of the series finale at Coolum.

Gibbs has held the championship leader’s red plate all year long, but the Queensland-based South Australian officially became the MX Nationals Champion when he fired his KTM 450 SX-F to a third-place finish in race one behind Ben Townley and his KTM teammate Luke Styke.

Gibbs’ 3-4 result for the day quizzically equated to a seventh on the day behind Adam Monea, Ben Townley and Dylan Long, but it’s unlikely that mathematical anomalies will feature in the newly crowned champion’s memories of today.

His KTM teammate Luke Styke was unable to back up from his impressive second place in the opener, and toiled in the second moto to a fifth placing which saw the MX1 rookie finish equal third on points with Monea.

On the back of a spectacular first year in MX1, the Jervis Bay rider was devastated to find that he would relinquish third in the championship on a countback, but immediately turned his focus to the upcoming Supercross season.

Rob Twyerould, KTM Motocross Racing Team Manager – “I’m over the moon; it’s just been an amazing year, and the culmination of three years with Kirk working his way up through the championship to finally win it, it was brilliant. I think through the whole year, he only conceded five points to his nearest rival, so, an absolutely amazing job.
The first race was fantastic for us today, but the second was a little tougher. Stykesy struggled a little bit with his fitness, but ended up tied in the championship for third only to lose it in a countback. For a first-year rider in MX1 that’s an amazing effort! He is incredibly hard on himself but I’m really proud of him; he was a big part of Gibbsy’s result as well because it worked so well with Kirk and the whole team. The guys directly in my team have been absolutely amazing that the effort they put in, and even starting right from the top with Jeff Leisk, his belief in me and his support has been unreal, and the other person has been Tam Paul – he’s been my sounding board all year and I really appreciate the effort that he has put in. I’d also like to thank everyone from head office in Perth who have supported us through the year, Customer Service Manager Craig Brown who has picked up the slack in my technical role when I have been off racing. And all the sponsors like Troy Lee Designs and Motorex, Dunlop, ETS fuels. It’s just been amazing.”

Kirk Gibbs – “It’s really good obviously, but it’s more of a relief than anything, I’ve put in a lot of hard work over the years and obviously to get the first one is great. It’s been a long time coming and I’m just pumped to be able to get one. It’s a win for the team and my family and for everyone really – it’s not just me that wins, it’s my friends and people from all over the place, people who let me ride at their places, people I practice with and my friends as well. All of these people have been behind this championship.”

Luke Styke – “I was pretty gutted to go from second in the championship to fourth in the last two rounds. The first one was great, I holeshot and led the whole race until the last two laps when Townley got past me. But in the second, nothing was clicking. I didn’t have any flow so I just pumped up and just rode like a squid, and I paid for it. But I guess equal third in the championship isn’t too bad. Anyway, I hope I can get some good results in supercross and just keep moving forward. I won the MX2 championship in 2013, so I can ride it, and it’s pretty fun.”

In MX2 Racing: KTM Factory Support rider Caleb Ward was unable to make it back-to-back Coolum victories when he struggled with poor starts. Ward recovered as best he could on his KTM 250 SX-F to take a pair of fourth placings for fourth overall and concludes the championship in fifth place.

Caleb Ward– “It wasn’t a top day for me. I struggled with qualifying as per usual – I need to work on that next year. In the first one I started okay but I got pushed wide and buried back in the pack. I worked my way through everyone but by the time I got back to the front, the leaders were too far gone and fourth was the best I could do. In the second I got a pretty horrible start, I was around 20th on the first lap and I tried really hard to pass as many people as I could. I was wishing it was a 30-minute moto because it took too long to get back to the front. Everyone has seen what I can do at Coolum, so the start was pretty much the difference between me dominating on the day and getting fourth overall. Starts are definitely my weakness and I need to fix that for sure.”

In MXD racing, KTM Factory Support racer Jayden Rykers again impressed – just as he has done for the past three rounds – with his sheer speed and determination. Rykers recovered from a trip over the handlebars early in the first moto to finish second, then in the second race, fought a dominant lead despite losing a throttle grip. He was denied his third round win in four rounds when a freak technical failure stopped his bike cold – but had still accumulated enough points to secure second place in the championship behind Wilson Todd, and ahead of Connor Tierney.

Jayden Rykers – “I was leading the first one, but I ran a wide line and went over the bars. I clawed back up to second and was on the tail of first place but I got caught up with lappers and I finished second in that one. In the second I went out and got another good start but on the first lap my throttle grip came off. I had to take my glove off as well, and that put me back into third, but I did some work on the next couple of laps and got back into first before my bike stopped. I was lucky enough to keep second in the championship, and second is not a bad result for us this season considering how much money some of the other guys in their factory teams get spent on them – it’s good to see that I’ve still competed on a minimal budget, and how much I’ve improved over the year.”

For more information on KTM Motorcycles, visit www.ktm.com.au or www.facebook.com/KTMAustralia.