KTM Australia press release:

KTM holds the lead in E3 and E1, and holds second place in E2 after a highly successful opening stanza to this year’s AORC championship at Kilkivan near Gympie in Queensland.

KTM Enduro Racing Team rider Daniel Sanders was the talk of the weekend, snagging his career-first round win, and following it up promptly with his second, to dominate the series’ opening phase.

Sanders powered his KTM 300 EXC to victory in the opening round by four seconds over Lachy Stanford with Josh Green third, then won again today with Green second and Stanford third, and will take the E3 class and AORC outright lead into next month’s rounds at Portland, New South Wales.

Teammate Tye Simmonds and his powerful KTM 450 EXC were right in the thick of the action, finishing fifth outright on Saturday and fourth outright today. He finished second in the E2 category on both days.

Former motocross pro and now off-road racing convert Jack Simpson introduced himself very effectively to his new cohort, powering his KTM 250 SX-F (complete with showroom-stock engine) to second in the E1 category yesterday, then to a demonstrative victory today.

As well as ensuring the KTM orange stretched across all three senior championship podiums, Peter Stevens KTM rider backed his early lead in the E1 championship with 9th outright yesterday, and seventh overall today.

Ben Grabham – KTM Enduro Racing Team Manager “I’m very happy, that was the perfect start to the AORC with Chucky wrapping up the outright on both days. Tye had a good weekend, with fifth yesterday and fourth today, and is sitting fourth outright with some decent points. We’re sitting pretty after some pretty tough conditions to be honest. You could have easily thrown away the championship here, but we’re looking good. The boys have been doing everything that we could have asked from them since the year ticked over, and obviously it’s shown, and Jack Simpson showed that he’s definitely a class contender as well.”

Daniel “Chucky” Sanders – KTM 300 EXC “I’m wrapped to get my first AORC wins; it’s unreal. It was good to beat them all on ground that I’m not too familiar with and not too good on. The KTM300 didn’t miss a beat all weekend and the Danny Apro-tuned suspension is a really good ride, the motor is pretty much the same as last year – I’ve done heaps of time on it now and I know how to ride it, the two-stroke is really good in the tight stuff so that’s where I make up as much time as possible. I’ve done a lot of practice in the off-season on rocky and off camber stuff and now I just want to keep this momentum going into the rest of the season.”

Tye Simmonds – KTM 450 EXC “It was a good weekend, we got good points and we’re not injured, everything is all good so overall I’m happy. Between January 1 and now we’ve come a long way and made good progress. I’m a little bummed on yesterday – it felt like the track beat me because I struggled a lot, but today we turned it around and got some good results, we got a second outright in a test, and we were pretty close to the boys – I think I was like two or three seconds off third outright, so we didn’t quite get to the podium, but overall we’re happy. A lot of positives.”

Jack Simpson – KTM 250 SX-F “We’ve featured in the series already, which is a bit unexpected. On Saturday I won the first three sprints convincingly and was sitting fourth outright, then all of a sudden I lost 14 seconds in one sprint without even a crash or any issue, so something’s strange about that, but I couldn’t get that time back. Anyway, I copped it on the chin and used it as fire in the belly and I smoked them by 20 seconds today. It’s a 100% stock engine on the little 250 too! Ben Grabham and Chucky and Tye have been giving me a lot of support, so thanks to them for that. I got a little bit stale on the motocross and switched to off-road and the atmosphere is much more friendly and encouraging, even between the competitors. I like it.”

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