Image: John Pearson.

KTM Enduro Racing Team’s Daniel Sanders was able to keep his position at the top of the Australian Off-Road Championship despite injuring his leg during Saturday’s fifth round at Murray Bridge.

Sanders has been dominant in the opening rounds of the 2016 AORC season, however he had to salvage a pair of fifth places Outright and 3-2 in the E3 division across the South Australian rounds.

“It’s a bummer, I was really looking forward to this,” Sanders said. “The leg is pretty tender, in the second test I got my foot caught on something and it just went real weak and folded on me. It didn’t feel good. I’d been going well before that and won the first test with a time that didn’t get beaten all day.

“Luckily we had [KTM exercise physiologist] Tim Cole here to see what we could do and we strapped it all up. It was really hard to put the pain out of the head, especially if I dabbed a foot in a corner! I had to ride pretty smart and smooth and stand up most of the way after that so I didn’t lose balance. Today it was pretty sore, but the track was a bit more flowy, which was better for me.”

With his determined results while in damage control mode at Murray Bridge, Sanders carries a healthy 14-point advantage into the mid-season break of the 2016 AORC season. He also maintains the E3 title lead.