KTM Australia press release:

KTM Motocross Racing Team rider Kirk Gibbs proved both his speed and his trademark resilience are at an all-time high as the 2017 MX Nationals series continued yesterday at Appin.

Gibbs powered his KTM 450 SX-F to a resounding victory in the first race, but his hopes of converting that into his first round win went down when he was caught in a three rider start-line pileup.

Ever the warrior however, Gibbs got going and chipped away at the field, passing every rider barring Todd Waters and Dean Ferris to be third. Unfortunately he was felled by a lapper with two laps to go, and finished sixth.

The epic, and typically gritty ride nonetheless gave Gibbs second on the day behind Ferris and ahead of Waters, and elevated the 2015 MX Nationals Champion to second in the championship.

Luke Styke battled unsuccessfully in race one to find the feel he needs to fire the afterburners, finishing eighth, but bounced back to an impressive podium in the second.
Kiwi Hamish Harwood rode his Davey Motorsports KTM 300 EXC to 13th on the day.

Jay Marmont – KTM Motocross Racing Team Manager: “Kirk was very strong in qualifying and got second to Dean in SuperPole. Going into the first moto we were about sixth off the gate but got through to first place after about 15 minutes, then pulled out a 10-15 second gap and won quite comfortably. To be honest, I didn’t think that Kirk was riding at his best and he was still pulling away from the rest of the field quite easily.

We were confident going into the second, but as we gated it rained on the line and as they went off, Mosig went sideways, hit Kirk’s throttle and he speared in and took out three other riders, so Clout, Peters and Kirk were left on the ground. He got up, fell again at ten minutes in, then worked his butt off and at the 25-minute mark made his way into third place. With two to go however, a lapper fell in front of him and he crashed and unfortunately dropped back to sixth. It gave us second on the day and there were a lot of positives to take out of it. We missed out on that overall again but we’re definitely getting closer.

Luke didn’t get the best start and finished eighth, and was quite down on himself to be honest. We talked, made some changes and in the second in the mud he rode a lot more solid, showed a lot more fight, and put himself in third. We just need to get that consistency out of him so we can turn a couple of top-threes for a podium.”

MX1
Kirk Gibbs – KTM450SX-F: “I didn’t feel like I rode very well at the first round, so to come here and ride well was great. I’m happy with my speed, but that second race was just tough. Anything that could go wrong did. I did a lot of damage control, and then gave it away at the end. I know it’s only round two but to give someone of Dean’s calibre that sort of a points lead this early makes it tough. I have a lot of confidence in myself and I knew what to work on after last round so to get a race win is awesome. I’ll never give up in a race and obviously that shows, but it is frustrating when you’ve earned a good position and then you lose it in the last two laps.”

Luke Styke – KTM450SX-F: “In practice and qualifying I struggled a little bit with my set up and I wasn’t feeling it in the conditions. For moto one we made some minor changes which made it a little more confidence but for moto two we made more drastic changes to help with the tricky track conditions. It rained while we were on the sight lap and continued to rain through the moto which made it really technical, but with the changes we made and my Dunlop tyres I was able to get my first podium of the year. I’m not satisfied overall with the result but it’s steps in the right direction and I feel as a team we are moving forward.”

MX2
Davey Motorsport rider and 2014 MXD Champion Egan Mastin logged his second podium in as many rounds at Appin with a 2-4 result for third on the day, behind Mitch Evans and Wilson Todd.

Western Australian rising star Jayden Rykers had the kind of day they call character-building, and was felled by crashing riders in every outing, still managing to take his Raceline Development Team KTM 250 SX-F to 12-8 moto finishes for 11th overall.

Egan Mastin – KTM 250SX: “I’m happy to come out of the day with solid points. In that second moto it was definitely easy to crash, so all in all I was happy with the day. Second moto was very hard-packed but the track got a little wet. I was running around sixth or seventh or so and I worked my way up to fourth. I was stoked with the bike and I’m happy to be working with my team.”

MXD
In MXD racing, Moto Tech KTM’s Callum Norton proved that being fresh out of juniors is no obstacle if the throttle is held on long enough, powering to an impressive maiden podium.

The 17-year-old Victorian rode his KTM 250 SX-F to third overall behind Cody Dyce and Jy Roberts.

Callum Norton – KTM250SX-F: “Not too bad today. A couple of little fall-overs in the last moto that cost me a bit but I still got third overall so it was a pretty solid day. I came off really big at the last round and bruised some ribs so I haven’t been able to ride for the last week and a half, so I wasn’t sure how I would be here. I had a really good battle with Riley Dukes in the first one, got second. In the second I got an okay start but it was fairly wet and muddy so I got held up there in the first couple of turns. I had a little fall running fourth ion the first moto and went back to eighth or ninth and got back to fourth again. I think it was two turns to go I dropped it in a rut and ended up sixth. One point off the top step of podium. So I was spewing about that, but it happens I guess.”

250cc Rising Star Rookies
KTM dominated the Rising Star Rookies action, with KTM Factory Junior Racing Team rider Mason Semmens using his KTM 125 SX to log a perfect 1-1 score over Rhys Budd and Bailey Malkiewicz.

Mason Semmens – KTM125SX: “It’s awesome, it’s definitely good to get a win. I won qualifying so that gave me a lot of confidence going into the first race. I got off to the holeshot, put down some good laps and led every lap. Then in the second I got the holeshot again, crashed I don’t know how many times, about four or something ridiculous, but tried to put my head down, get a good lap in and ended up better than the previous race so it was a great day for me and the team. I couldn’t be happier.”