KTM Australia press release:

A single week after taking over the red plate with the narrowest of leads in this year’s MX Nationals series, defending champion and KTM Motocross Racing Team rider Kirk Gibbs has extended his lead after winning the fifth round championship at Wanneroo in Western Australia.

Gibbs used the tough, energy sapping sand track, to take his second round win of the series, a 2, 3, 1 score giving him victory on the day over Matt Moss and Todd Waters. The Queensland-based South Australian will now take a healthy 20 point league into the month long winter break which marks the halfway point series.

His teammate Jesse Dobson made several points; proving that his pelvis fracture is now well behind him, that the six rides he said since the injury hasn’t quite been enough for him to regain full fitness, and most of all that he has forgotten how to screw on a throttle on a sandy track.

Dobson qualified for his first SuperPole of the year, setting the fourth fastest time, before going on to post 6, 6, 3 moto finishes for the day to be fifth overall.

MX1 Championship Points after round 5: 1. Kirk Gibbs 351, 2. Todd Waters 331, 3. Dean Ferris 324, 4. Matt Moss 314, 5. Kade Mosig 265, 6. Dylan Long 259, 7. Brett Metcalfe 225, 8. Jay Wilson 222, 9. Jacob Wright 193, 10. Michael Menchi 188

Kyle Blunden, KTM Motocross Team Manager – “We’ve had a brilliant day. Caleb rode really well, and it seemed that as it got rougher the track came to him more. He was able to hop some stuff and wheelie some things and it was really good to watch him in that second moto, the one that he won. The one-hour turnaround made it a battle for all the boys though, and the mechanics, and Caleb struggled a little in the third race. All in all though, he made up some points in the championship, hopped up a few places and gained a lot of points on almost everybody. In MX1 Kirk qualified fastest but finished second in Super Pole, and felt that he had to really put his head down to excel. He got three solid starts and wasn’t able to put it to Dean in the first two, but unfortunately in the third Dean hit the back of Kirk’s bike over a jump and went down at high speed. Kirk was in brilliant form – he wasn’t overly optimistic coming into the sand round against two guys who basically lived at Lommel in Belgium, however, he got a very good setting with the bike and it paid off. Jesse was really impressive today, he got great starts and chipped away and did exactly what we asked of him – to be there inside the top ten – and he definitely did that this week.”

Kirk Gibbs (KTM 450 SX-F) – “I’d been getting great starts but I was always a little bit wider than Dean, so he was always holding the inside, but in the last one I pinched him a little harder and stayed more inside around the first turn. I went off the first tabletop and I scrubbed but jumped straight. I felt something hit the back of my bike and I guess that was Dean, it was a pretty close call for me but I just kept going, and then saw him down the next lap. I went over to the CDR boys later and said ‘sorry, but it was just a racing incident, I couldn’t do anything when I was out front’. Even Dacka said to me that it wasn’t my fault which made me feel a little bit better; you always feel bad when someone goes down from hitting you. But obviously it was out of my control and I couldn’t do anything about that. I’m just happy to come away with a solid day. Dean was riding really well in those first two, but I was able to finish off the day strong in than last moto and get the overall. It’s nice to be where we are in the points but it is a long year and we’ll just try to keep going and having a solid second half to the year. It’s really good to get my second race win, we didn’t start the first two rounds at 100% so I definitely feel like my speed has got better.”

Jesse Dobson (KTM 450 SX-F) – “I feel a bit bummed that I didn’t do better today, but I just got a bit fatigued, and that’s just due to a lack of bike time. I’ve ridden the bike six times since I’ve been back from injury, and then raced this weekend. So the tongue came out a little bit, got caught in the chain and Mossy and Mosig ended up getting by me – I feel like I let that one slip. I’m I had a big crash in the first one when I was trying to pull a tearoff and I didn’t get my hand back on the bar while I was trying to get it fifth. That would have made the difference on the day but what can you do, sometimes I just have to learn from my mistakes and that’s what we’re doing. The results are showing that we are getting better and that’s the main thing.
Coming into this mid-season break it’s going to be good to get some more bike time in, and come into the second half ready to fire.”

In MX2 racing, KTM Motocross Racing Team rider Caleb Ward continued his charge back towards the top of the MX2 category, finishing second to Nathan Crawford at Wanneroo after claiming 3, 1, 4 moto results aboard his KTM 250 SX-F and stepping one place closer to the championship lead. Just one place behind him on the third step of the podium was MX2 rookie and Davey Motorsports rider Jayden Rykers, who used his home state round to move up two places to fourth in the national championship standings with a brilliant 2, 3, 3 day.

MX2 Championship Points after round 5: 1. Nathan Crawford 326, 2. Jed Beaton 313, 3. Caleb Ward 305, 4. Jayden Rykers 280, 5. Wilson Todd 270, 6. Kyle Webster 261, 7. Jake Moss 255, 8. Dylan Wills 239, 9. Dean Porter 228, 10. Hamish Harwood 226

Caleb Ward (KTM 250 SX-F) – “I lost one point to the championship lead, but I gained points on Jed and moved up to third in the championship so it was a decent day. I think I was five points up on Crawford going into the that last moto, but I sort of stuffed it up a little bit, my lower back was really sore and I just didn’t really get into a flow but hey, it happens. I just wasn’t jumping all the bumps or getting the turns nice, I was making a lot of mistakes and wasn’t riding to my potential. All in all still a decent day but it could have been a lot better if I’d have been able to flow a bit better.”

Jayden Rykers (KTM 250 SX) – “It’s a good feeling to be back at home and in comfortable surroundings, and to get a good result in front of the home crowd, family and friends. They were stoked on how the day went. The track was completely different to when we raced there for the State titles and stuff, it’s never formed up like it did today. It made for interesting racing and really levelled the playing field. I had three top-six starts today, and always knocked off a few guys in the first couple of corners, so it wasn’t too much work going through the pack. It’s really great to move up into fourth in my rookie season, and to go with the podium into the mid-season break is really good for the confidence.”