KTM Australia press release:

KTM-mounted trials rider turned two-time AMA EnduroCross Champion Cody Webb has dominated the weekend’s Super Enduro-X at the V8 Supercar championship opener, the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.

On the fast and challenging course which combined highly technical enduro-x obstacles with faster supercross-style jump lanes, the Californian made his intentions clear right from the start, taking the overall victory in Friday’s opening encounter ahead of Husqvarna-mounted duo Mike Brown and Kyle Redmond.

He won Saturday night’s battle from Brown and Aussie Cheyne Boyd, before finishing second in today’s final hitout, after crashing in the opening race and carving spectacularly through the pack to fourth, then wrapping up with another top-of-the podium performance to finish.

In his first enduro-x outing and two years, Aussie team mate Tye Simmonds couldn’t quite match it with the full-time enduro-x professionals, but with a bag of supercross experience and plenty of determined aggression, he was the last man standing in the 1V1 shootouts on both nights.

Despite a complete lack of race exposure since last year, the contract musterer from Bourke took two more race podiums over the course of the event and set the second fastest lap time in SuperPole yesterday.

Spanish Dakar champion Laia Sanz earned herself a legion of admirers as she tried to match it against the boys on a track containing the kind of enduro-x obstacles she relishes, but also the supercross obstacles she has very little experience on, and made plenty of progress as the event unfolded.

With over 200,000 spectators at the Clipsal event and the enduro-x scheduled not to clash with the other events the moto men (and woman), thousands of new fans got to experience Webb’s KTM dominance.

Glenn Kearney KTM Enduro Racing Team Manager: “Cody’s been pretty impressive, He’s only been off the podium once, and that was today when he crashed in the first log section when he and Cheyne Boyd came together off the start – he gave them half a lap start and still managed to catch back up to fourth!

It’s been great having him here, he’s easy to work with, doesn’t damage anything and just looks comfortable out there.

Laia’s been unreal getting the job done against the boys and beating quite a few of them. She was still going too, when quite a few guys had gone out. She’s nice, and really funny, and didn’t require much to get the job done – you couldn’t ask for better riders to have here.

Tye showed a lot of his supercross skill and was the last guy standing in the 1-V-1 heats on both Friday and Saturday. He had the aggression up when he pushed Cody out on Friday, but they had a laugh about it, it’s all fun and a bit of racing. It was really good to see Tye on the podium a few times as well.”

Cody Webb: “I’ve had a blast, it was a really cool format, and everyone’s getting more and more comfortable throughout the weekend. You’ve got the moto guys mixing it up and getting more and more comfortable on the enduro-x section, and though it’s my first time hitting supercross style rhythms, it’s cool to look back on it and see how I’ve gotten more comfortable throughout the weekend. We’re a little side show off to the side of the main event here, but everyone’s really psyched on the show we’re putting on. It’s been close racing, and a couple of times I’ve had to come through the pack after going down on the first start straight – I think the crowd’s gotten a good show and I’ve had a blast myself too. I’m hoping they put my name on the list if they have the event again.”.

Tye Simmonds: “It’s been a bloody good weekend. We’ve had plenty of riding from Press Day on Wednesday to today. The track’s been a whole lot of fun, it’s been technical with all the logs and rocks, and then some super-cool supercross stuff as well. I’m looking forward to next year. I had an absolute ball feeling like I was back in my supercross days with the big crowds. Me and Cody had a couple of good races in the man-on-mans, he tried to muscle me on the inside in the first turn in the final, so I gave him the ‘welcome to Australia’ and put him on the ground and managed to sneak away with the win and won $1000 so that was cool. We were okay though, he’s been really good, he’s been kicking our arses all weekend. We’re racing, making a bit of coin out of it, and it’s just a fun weekend on and off the track, so, bloody good.”

Laia Sanz: “I’m enjoying and also learning. It’s not my normal kind of riding, but I’ve learned a lot from the first day until now, so I’m enjoying the experience. I was trying not to be the last one against the boys, but it was a difficult track for me with the jumps, so I was just trying to enjoy and to learn. The first day it was so hard for me, but now I’m getting better every time and I’m much faster in those sections than when I arrived here. Everybody’s really nice here and it’s nice to be a part of this event and so many people are coming to see us. It’s big and it’s a nice experience.”

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