KTM Australia press release:

At the final stop in a season in which the KTM Enduro Racing Team has proven the superiority of both its motorcycles and its riders, the men in orange are ready to get serious at the Australian Four-Day Enduro Championships at Merrijig in Victoria.

Contributing no points towards the outcome of the A4DE, today’s seeding prologue was a chance for riders to either blow the cobwebs out hard, or ease gently into the conditions in preparation to tomorrow’s first of what will be four days of fierce competition.

KTM dominated all three Pro classes in the Australian Off Road Championship which concluded two months ago, but with last year’s four-day champion and no less than three current and former World Enduro Champions on hand, the talent pool has definitely become deeper.

The KTM Enduro Racing Team’s charismatic AORC champ Daniel ‘Chucky’ Sanders will be one of the favourites for the event after a spectacular ISDE performance in which he finished second outright.

Teammate Tye Simmonds’ preparation hasn’t been quite as idyllic; the contract musterer from Bourke has had plenty of saddle time, but almost all of it has involved chasing feral goats on a motorcycle far more docile than his KTM 450 EX-C.

Sharing the truck with Sanders and Simmonds is a legend of Australian enduro racing, former Aussie, world, ISDE and GNCC champion Shane Watts.

The 44-year-old has recently set up camp back in Australia after a long period living in the US, and will ride a KTM 125 XCW in the E1 category of the event.

Also in E1 and likely holding some deserved portion of the favouritism will be former motocross pro and AORC E1 Champion Jack Simpson, aboard a KTM 250 SX-F.

Two KTM young guns who starred in this year’s, AORC Under 19 category, runner-up Nic Tomlinson and Ben Kearns will be keen to test their mettle against the big boys.

Ben Grabham – KTM Enduro Racing Team Manager: “It’s good to be here, we’ve been waiting for this one a while with it being postponed, and I think being close to 9 weeks to finish off the AORC. the countryside looks amazing here and we had a good solid day’s rain yesterday. All the boys ran their race bikes on Sunday and after a bit of a run around in today’s prologue, are keen to get into Day One tomorrow. We have got the old legend himself, Shane Watts riding a 125 XCW for us. Chucky has been busy with his amazing result at the six-day, and he’s definitely up there with the favourites for the event. Tye has been out chasing his goats, so we don’t know what his level will be, but you would never count him out, hearing that there are a few good grass tracks that are a bit motocrossy. Wattsy being here is unreal, I used to race with him and try to tack onto him. I don’t think a lot of young people know the amazing list of results behind his name but it’s fun to have him back on the team and out on the 125. He is a character who is not afraid to say what he is thinking and he’s pretty funny to have around. It’s pretty exciting, when you look at the top five there’s a lot of good guys with a lot of big results next to their names. In saying that, Chucky has had one of the best lead ups out of all of this group of guys. So I’ve no doubt he’s capable of being at the front, so over four days it’s just a matter of getting him in his groove nice and early, and getting some consistent results. We gave Jack Simpson a few bits and pieces here yesterday, and he is all bubbly and happy, so he is definitely another one who I would think would be racing for that class win, for sure..”

Daniel “Chucky” Sanders – KTM 300 EXC Some of us riders went out and helped the volunteers and the club in setting out a couple of tests before the event and we made some pretty good tests where you get to overlook some properties, and me and Phillips went around putting in some cool lines and stuff, so the boys should enjoy it. But definitely it’s been a good week leading in, and good weather, I’ve got the bike sorted and I’m looking forward to it.I got a bit beaten up at Wildwood last weekend and pulled up pretty sore, so I had to get back on top of that, and now I’m looking forward to getting the race started and trying to go to that number one position. We’ve got the strongest field in a A4DE that we maybe ever have, with Milner, Phillips, Bellino, and then you throw in Hollis and Tye, and Wattsy also, he might pop up in a few tests here and there. That will be good seeing him ripping around. It’s definitely going to be a tough one but at the end hopefully it’ll be pretty close between me, Phillips and Milner, and the fastest rider can win. I’ve had Wattsy in my corner a fair bit over the years, I did a couple of schools with him when I was younger, just coming through the ranks and it was great getting a few points and some advice from him. He was the only dude ever to win the six-day on a 125, and he’s won pretty much every championship in the world worth winning, so to have him under the tent here and working with us is cool.”

Tye Simmonds – KTM 450 EXC “I haven’t had the best preparation, I’ve had so much work on since the end of the AORC I haven’t had much time to go riding or training, but at least I’ve been on a bike. I don’t think anybody has done the amount of hours on a bike all year that I’ve done in the last eight weeks – not quite the right type of riding – but it’s all fun and games. I’m having a ball, it’s good to be back down here with the boys and I’m just looking forward to going racing. I’ve missed the whole atmosphere with the team, with Grabbo and Mick and Chucky and the boys. As much as it is a job, and you’re trying to be serious, it’s hard to be serious with those clowns around and you have a ball with everything. I only met Wattsy yesterday, I actually changed a couple of tyres for him. Grabbo has got a bit of a wager going on, but I’m a bit worried about it so I thought I would build up a bit of credit. Every test that Wattsy beats Chucky or I in, we’ve got to pay him 100 bucks. I told him I charge $100 per tyre, and now I’m $200 in credit already, so hopefully I can keep it that way! The pressure is on Chucky and I – and Grabbo loves it!”

Jack Simpson – KTM 250 SX-F “Bring it on, I’m keen to go, there’s a lot of open racing which is going to suit me awesome so I’m keen to get it happening. We’ve had a good amount of rain so it appears that the track’s going to be nice and loamy with a heap of grip, so I’m ready to rumble. It’s the same game plan of the six-day for me, with a little bit more expectation because I know how I compare here. My goal is to win my class, and I’ve got top-three or top-five overall in mind. There’s some big names out here, but they’re all human, they’re not any better than me and I’m not any better than them. I’m just keen to get racing.”

Shane Watts – KTM 125XCW “I decide every year to do the four-day but it just doesn’t happen. The last time I did one was 2006, and it just hasn’t worked into my life schedule since, but now that we’re back, it’s like ‘hell yeah I’m going to do it’ as it is a great race to do and it’s been a long time since I got to catch up with all the old familiar faces. I definitely have some performance goals, I don’t want to crash and I don’t want to hurt myself, that’s number one, and second is I’d like to win. But then I start to really think about it and I realise I have no chance of ever doing that, so then my main goal at the end of it all is just to have a really good time riding bikes and that’s why I’ve chosen the KTM 125 because if you can’t have a fun time riding that bike you’ve got something wrong with you. I’m going to go out and smash around on the 125 and as long as I don’t look at the test times I will feel as though I have won the event because I feel so fast on that bike, but I know that once I look at the times it won’t equate to the way I feel on the bike. So, my goal is just to have a good safe rider just be a part of the event and the result does not matter. That’s why I’m riding E1 instead of veterans, which I’m well and truly eligible for – you could say I’m overqualified for veterans! But I do want to go and ride veterans and be viewed as sandbagging, and even then if I did ride veterans and I got beat everyone would be, “what’s up with that guy?” So it’s better for me to ride E1 on a 125 and then when I do get beaten – which will happen – I can say, ‘yeah, but I’m riding a 125, and its underpowered’, or ‘I’m racing a heap of really young kids and they’re really fast’, or ‘I’m just an old guy there that’s lost it now’. At least I’ve got some excuses there for the imminent poor performance that I’m going to put on here over the next couple of days! I spent a couple of hours when I got here yesterday hanging out over at the KTM truck and that’s a great environment they have there; everyone gets on really well and there are no attitudes. Everyone is joking around and they definitely made me feel more than welcome over there. At’s a top-notch operation they have over there and it feeds into why they have such great results. They’ve got excellent talent in the riders and the mechanics and the team personnel, and you see that on the scoreboard. A happy rider is a fast rider and that team environment is a big part of it. Having said that, maybe my result for this event will weaken that theory a couple of notches!”

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