KTM Australia press release:

KTM’s Enduro Racing Team has continued its recent dominance in Australian Off-Road Championship racing, with Daniel Milner powering his KTM450 EXC-F to impressive back-to-back victories in the opening rounds of this year’s series at Rawson in south-eastern Victoria.

The 25-year-old KTM rider from Lang Lang was unstoppable across the weekend, and even pulling in to change a complete rear brake after fouling it with bunting couldn’t keep him from victory in the opener.

The team that finished 1-2 in last year’s series kicked off in ominously similar fashion on the Saturday, when teenager Lyndon Snodgrass exceeded all expectations for his very first national outing for the Factory squad.

Snodgrass and his KTM 300 EXC followed Milner in for a career-best second outright in Saturday’s Cross Country, in the process winning the E3 category.

The 18-year-old couldn’t quite replicate another E3 class victory today however, finishing runner up to Lachy Stanford in the category, and 6th outright.

In the E1 category, 21-year-old defending Champion and Peter Stevens Motorcycles rider Jack Simpson damaged a wheel on Saturday and lost time after a crash today, but still kicked his E1 title defence off with a pair of seconds, and illustrated his – and his KTM 250 XCF’s – potential as an outright contender.

Factory support racer Tom Mason powered his Bolton’s Motorcycles KTM 300 EXC to a career-best third in the E3 class on the Saturday, then did the same again on Sunday, in both cases finishing with top ten finishes that hint that he could be another young hotshot on the rise.

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

Glenn Kearney – KTM Enduro Racing Team Manager: “We came away with the win at Clipsal earlier and here as well so the beginning to the year has gone as well as possible for KTM.

A 1-2 outright yesterday in the cross country made me real proud of all the work that’s been put in from both riders and mechanics. We had a big pre-season getting everything sorted and it’s all paid off. The boys have obviously done their homework.

We were giving some help to Jack Simpson in the XC and the sprints – he was on fire as lot of the time and just had a couple of off ones. After Milner there was a big battle for the next five positions. Today Mason was pretty impressive in the sprints. Had some good laps and got up there.”

Daniel Milner: “I couldn’t be any happier. The first day I got a good start and got to the front, and started checking out, but drifted wide in a corner and got bunting in the back brake and ended up boiling it. I came in and the boys changed me over in super quick time and I ended up getting a win.

There’s no way I thought that Harry and Mick would get it done as quick as they did, but they were unreal. Today was hard going, and we did what we needed to do, so I was definitely happy with my performance and the team’s over the whole weekend. The KTM 450 EXC-F was unreal.”

Lyndon Snodgrass: “A pretty good way to kick off the year; it was a pretty awesome track, conditions were good and it got really rough. Coming into the cross-country I knew I could be right up there and I was happy with how we took off. I charged into second and had the lead for a couple of laps there while Milner had some problems, and then hovered in second for the rest of the race. I’m stoked with that.

Today the KTM 300 EXC was really good in the tight stuff – I just made a few too many mistakes for the day and they ended up costing me, but all in all – really happy with the start to the season. It was pretty awesome working with the team and a fun way to start the year.”

Jack Simpson: “Yesterday I fluffed the start and was second-last into the first corner. I had to fight my way through which was difficult. I smashed my rear wheel with two laps to go and nearly DNFed, but I finished sixth outright and second in class.

Today I had a crash in the third one and my bike was down an embankment and it took me a good twenty or thirty seconds to get the thing back up and running. Then I had my handguard catching my clutch lever so I had to fiddle around with that so that kind of killed the day for me in one crash. Other than that I was consistently in the top five. So, a rough weekend in a way but not the worst in the world. I’m disappointed in myself for how it panned it out – I know I’m good for top three. But it’s not the end of the world. I’m safe, I’m fast, the bike’s good. Bring on the next one.”

Tom Mason: “I went 3-3 in E3 and 8-8 outright and it’s the best result I’ve ever had so far. The track suited me and I liked it so I just put my head down and came out with the goods. You needed a nice light bike around those tracks so the KTM 300 EXC definitely suited the conditions.

I missed half of last year so I had no idea where I was coming out of the off season, but we’ve come out pretty good. These are some pretty good results to build off so hopefully we can just go up from here.”