Image: MXN.

KTM Australia press release:

KTM Australia is celebrating a major haul in the Manufacturers Championships after this year’s MX Nationals concluded at Coolum on Sunday.

In addition to winning two individual championships, KTM won five of the ten motorcycle categories which were fought out as the championship threaded its way across the nation.

KTM triumphed as the top Manufacturer in the MX2 Pro category, 125cc Rookies, the 85cc Cup, the Amateur Cup and the Clubman Lites.

When Jess Moore won last weekend’s Australian Women’s Motocross Championship at Coolum, it was with one eye to the future, and far distant locations.

“I’ve got one more race left in WA state titles so hopefully I can win the Women’s title,” says Jess, “and hopefully continue on with a top 15 or top 10 in MX2. But next year I want to get back to Europe. It depends a lot on money as well, but now that we’ve got this number one plate we can hopefully get a bit more help.”

The 23-year-old Sports Science student from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia won the Aussie title ahead of Maddy Brown and Meghan Rutledge after a stunning fourth and deciding final moto saw her triumph narrowly over Brown at the very last gasp.

“There was close racing both days,” says Jess. “In the end it came down to three of us who were on the pace for the whole weekend. There was a bit of controversy between Meg and Maddy, so I sort of stayed back from that and let them do their thing, and took advantage of that a little bit in that second race when they both came together. It was hard racing between the three of us. Going into the last race I had two points on Maddy so I obviously had to beat her, and it came down to the last race. She was in front of me coming out of the last turn but she shut off a fraction early before the finish line and I just got by her.”

The Ray Moore Motorcycles KTM rider finished with 2, 1, 3, 3 results from the four points-paying motos, to win the championship by four points on her KTM 250SX, in the energy-sapping deep sand for which the Queensland track is famous.

“Winning the national championship still hasn’t sunk in, to be honest. Especially with going down to the last Moto for the whole weekend, I only just got Maddy at the line, she shut off a little bit early, and I won the race by .17 seconds. It’s only just starting to sink in now but it’s good, I have worked hard for it for a long time. It’s been a long time coming.”

It’s a common misconception that all Western Australians ride nothing but sand, but for the Kalgoorlie local and three-time WA Womens Champion that isn’t exactly the case.

“Kalgoorlie has conditions that are definitely hardback, but growing up in WA you have to learn how to ride the sand. I enjoy racing in the sand and I feel good in it, I just don’t get to practice it that much. I had only raced at Coolum once before, in 2011 for the women’s National. It’s a good track and it’s good to go back to but it’s not my natural surface.”

Jess has been getting help from KTM Australia for the last few years, but is quick to acknowledge the backing of local supporters Larry Watson and Neil Dunn.

“Jess has been riding KTM for a long time,” says Neil Dunn, “she went to the Worlds, got sixth in Qatar, was running third in Thailand a couple of years ago and got busted up. She’s spent all her money getting herself fixed up, and travelling to follow her racing, and she only had an old bike that she was running around on at Bunbury last year and she came up to me and Larry and said, ‘would you have a spare bike for me to ride the last state round with the boys.’ We had Rykers’ bike and he was going to Germany, so we said ‘alright, you can ride this one’. So she went out in the boys race at the last state round at Coastal last year, and finished sixth against all the guys, so from then on, we thought we’d give her a go. So we bought the bike and all the parts and we bought a big truck this year. Everyone says, ‘It’s a big truck for one girl,’ but that was our intention, and both of us had a tear in our eye when she won the title, because of the effort she has put in and the effort we’ve put in. So it was fantastic.”

Coastal KTM’s John Bova made sure his last run in the 85cc Gold Cup would be one to remember as he gleefully raised the trophy as newly-crowned MX Nationals 85cc Champion.

“It was definitely an awesome experience to race all those big tracks,” said John, “and definitely good to win the 85 Cup title at Coolum.”

Coming off the back of a brilliant three-title haul in the recent New South Wales State Championships, Bova built on his second-place finishes at Horsham and Murray Bridge to win the title ahead of Tyler Darby and Bailey Malkiewicz.

Bova, from Gray’s Point near Cronulla, admits that the sand of Coolum is not his favourite racing surface, but he still managed to get the required points to wrap up the title – a third place behind Tyler Darby and Noah Ferguson.

“It’s always good to get a podium, but especially to get the series win,” says Bova. “It was a very pleasing experience racing all my mates, especially those top five guys. I knew them all, so I knew it was going to be tough racing.
One of the bigger riders in the class, Bova, who turns 15 in October found his size did him no favours in the deep sand.

“It was hard in Coolum, especially coming from Sydney – there’s a lot of hard packed tracks around here. Coolum was definitely a sandy track and very rough, and being a lot heavier on the bike, it creates a little bit of extra drag through the sand.

The title proved elusive, but KTM’s ace juniors were in the thick of it until the final flag, with Evolution Motorcycles rider Morgan Fogarty winning the final round to be second overall behind winner Cody Dyce.

Of the KTM Factory Junior Team riders, comeback kid Caleb Grothues qualified fastest at Coolum on the Mandurah City KTM and finished second in the final moto, however a crash in the first moto cost him a chance at winning the title and he had to be content with third overall.
Rhys Budd rode the Dirtbike Factory KTM125SX to 3,5 results for fourth for the round (tenth in the series), while Mason Semmens powered his Ringwood KTM-backed machine to 7,10 results for seventh on the day and in the championship.

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