Image: John Pearson.

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Daniel Sanders was a surprise starter in last weekend’s Penrite Hattah Desert Race in Victoria, blasting to second behind Daniel Milner despite encountering late difficulties.

Last year’s Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) winner Sanders has had a mixed start to his international career in the Enduro2 World Championship this season as part of KTM’s official factory team, currently sixth in the standings.

Upon return from the recent Greek round of EnduroGP, Sanders scored second at Hattah for the second year in a row in what was an all-KTM factory team podium of runaway AORC leader Milner, Sanders and Lyndon Snodgrass.

“It’s good to be back and it’s such a massive event,” Sanders said post-race. “It was a pretty rushed job for me and the prep wasn’t sufficient, but I just wanted to be here and have a crack at it. I still had some jet-lag coming from Greece and I just wasn’t fit enough to swing off it for four hours like me and Tye [Simmonds] were last year.

“Doing enduros you don’t practice holding the heart rate at 170bpm for so long, so that was a bit different. Daniel and I had a good battle. I elected to run the big 17-litre tank where the boys were running the 12, so off the start Milner pulled away, but when he had to pit I took the lead and held it for the first six laps.

“Late in the race I just hit a lapper and knocked myself silly – he made a mistake and cut into me and I couldn’t go anywhere and I hit my head pretty hard. I couldn’t remember the track anymore, so I just kept cruising around and tried to keep the pace going and tried to finish. I want to come back again if I can do this properly – second place is always more motivating than first!”

The next round of the EnduroGP World Championship is scheduled for Castelo Branco in Portugal on 21-23 July. Sanders’ E2 category is currently led by Red Bull KTM teammate Josep Garcia.