KTM Australia press release:

KTM Motocross Racing Team riders Kyle Peters and Jesse Dobson ended a tough, up and down straight Supercross championship season on something of a high, with both riders qualifying for a star-studded main event at the last round of the Australian Supercross Championships, in Sydney.

On Saturday, exciting Sunshine Coast Jesse Dobson failed to qualify for the final after sustaining a leg injury during a heat race for, while American Kyle Peters, standing in for injured Kirk Gibbs, was punted in no uncertain terms out of a promising fourth place – and any kind of podium contention – on the first lap of the main.

Chad Reed won that race from series winner Justin Brayton and Jay Marmont.

The KTM Motocross Racing Team and its two premier class riders rebounded last night however, and both transferred comfortably through to the final, with Peters going on to finish sixth.

Dobson however, after qualifying through to race against a man who was his idol as a child (Reed), ran afoul of the leg injury he had collected a night earlier, and with his grip strength compromised, came unstuck in the whoops and crashed out of the race.

In an extensive freestyle program, KTM-backed Levi Sherwood came third in the Best Whip competition, on a brand new 2017 250 SX.

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

Kyle Blunden, KTM Motocross Racing Team Manager – “The competition was pretty stacked with Chad coming home and Villopoto and Webb, and it added a huge spectacle as far as the racing goes, but it made it more difficult for us.

On Saturday Kyle got put over a berm on lap one, which saw him lose a couple of laps trying to get his bike back to the track. Jesse went down at the end of the whoops in his semi and he didn’t qualify. Yesterday however, it was It was fantastic to have the boys both get into the main. Kyle’s starts were especially good, and Jesse’s speed was exceptional; he qualified fourth-fastest yesterday, with only Reed, Brayton and Webb faster. Impressive for a guy still learning supercross! In the main though he couldn’t grip the bike with his injured leg and had another crash going through the whoops.

The Supercross season was a tough one for us with Kirk getting hurt straight away and us bringing in Kyle with only a day’s practice on the bike. We started behind the eight ball so we had no particular expectations other than to try. Jesse has a bright future in Supercross and Kyle has a lot of talent too, as he’s shown at certain times. The team has worked really well as a whole and the bikes have been great. Thanks to Danny Apro, Jess Foreman, Jordan Yeo and Gary Bradford.

We’ve got a bit of a fire in our bellies after losing the motocross championship and everyone’s looking forward to coming back next year.”

Kyle Peters (KTM 450 SX-F) – “The first night I had an awesome heat race and went straight to the main. It was a really cool thing with the whole Aussie/American feature race and Super Pole, it gave us a lot more track time and mixed it up for the fans. In the main I was running fourth or fifth on the first lap and ended up getting hit hard and knocked off the track pretty hard. I hit a few medical guys and the wall. It took me a couple of minutes to rejoin the track so I couldn’t really catch back up and I ended up 12th. Night two was really good, I won the Semi and in the main I got on okay start and came through the pack a little bit and ended up sixth. Overall a lot of positives from the weekend and a few negatives, but from my standpoint we learned a lot and made a lot of progress. I was stoked. It’s always good to come back to Australia, I’m planning on coming back more and more each year, the people are amazing. I’ve made a lot of friends over here so I’m happy to have had this opportunity, I can’t wait to be back. The whole KTM team has been amazing, from helping me with suspension, motors, anything they can possibly help me with, they’ve been amazing to work with and helped me so much with my riding and I am blessed to have those guys as the team I was on, and hopefully I will be able to work with them again in the future.”

Jesse Dobson (KTM 450 SX-F) – “The first night in Sydney was kind of a disaster; I put myself in bad track positions from the start and found it really hard to pass. It was the kind of track where you had to force the issue, so I had to go to a pretty stacked LCQ. There was Hahn, Ferris, me, Boppo and a couple of others. I felt that I rode good, but thirds don’t get you through the LCQ. The second night I qualified fourth, and I felt good. But I had a crash in my heat, and ended up in the wall which hurt my leg pretty bad so from then on I was just kind of nursing that.
I went out in the next semi and ended up making it into the main with a third. I think I was sitting in not a bad track position but the track went so dry and slippery that I literally just touched the front brake and I went down. I aggravated my leg, and through the whoops I couldn’t hang on because of my leg injury and I ended up getting a bit whiskey and dropped the front. After that it was time to call it a night. I bent the bike and hurt my hands and leg again so it was no good circulating because you’d just get in someone’s way because the track was so tight. My Supercross experience this year had plenty of ups and downs but also some good progress, so I look forward to next year so from .”

In SX2 racing, Raceline Development Team rider Dylan Wills showed exceptional speed in winning his semi, only crash out of contention after falling awkwardly in the whoops with two laps to go during Saturday night’s SX2 final.

Gavin Faith won the race from Jackson Richardson and Hayden Mellross. Wills was credited with 11th, with team mate Jesse Madden 12th. Standing in for injured Caleb Ward, Justin Hoeft struggled with starts, and failed to qualify on both nights.

Dylan Wills (KTM 250 SX-F) – “Saturday was a good day; I rode really strong again and backed up what I did last weekend. I had the fastest lap in my heat race by nearly a second, then won my semi and got a pretty good start in the main, I was sitting sixth until I had a moment through the whoops and went down, and now I’ve got a cast on my wrist and I’m going to get it checked out. I rolled around the last lap to finish the race and ended up getting 11th but I had no grip strength so I couldn’t race Sunday. The Race Safe guys are pretty sure it’s a break and I think so too. I can feel it, it’s hurt. I’ve been really, really happy just to build every week in this series and get stronger and faster with every round. For 8 laps of the main event in Sydney I was the fastest guy on the track, so it was a good feeling to know that I could do it, for sure.

Justin Hoeft (KTM 250 SX-F) – “I had a lot of fun, and I was really surprised at the turnout, it was really big. It was tough coming from America where it’s a lot different, and this was super tight. But all in all I have fun time, I didn’t do as good as I expected all wanted to do, and but it was a good experience and we can always improve. I feel like my food was good, I just couldn’t figure out how to get off the gate and that was pretty much the whole race. Everyone from the team was awesome I couldn’t ask for anything more.”