KTM Australia press release:

KTM Motocross Racing Team riders Kirk Gibbs and Luke Styke excelled in the gnarliest of muddy conditions to score their first double-podium of the season at the fourth round of the 2017 MX Nationals series at Horsham.

On a day that reduced the best-laid strategies to survival mode across all four classes, Gibbs and Styke underlined their status as operators of the highest calibre, powering their KTM 450 SX-F machines to second and third on the day, respectively, behind defending champion Dean Ferris.

Gibbs had earlier qualified fastest for the round and set the fourth-fastest Go-Pro Super Pole time, but couldn’t quite nail the moto starts he needed to bring his abundant speed to bear.

He got tangled with lappers and had a couple of small falls in the first race, but in both cases pushed on with trademark Gibbs grit on his way to 5-2 results.

His KTM team mate Luke Styke used gunfighter-quick starts to begin both his campaigns from top-two positions, and despite a fall in the second moto registered 3-4 finishes.

Davey Motorsports’ ironman Hamish Harwood gelled particularly well with the glutinous conditions, and slopped and slithered to easily his best finish of the MX1 championship – a seventh in class in amongst the factory bikes on his KTM 300 EXC.

MX1 – Jay Marmont – KTM Motocross Racing Team Manager: “It was great for the team to have both riders on the podium here. As a team we worked hard during the week finding little things to create a bit more confidence, but unfortunately the track didn’t allow us to feel all those gains – it was basically just survival mode. Kirk struggled with his starts today but in typical Kirk Gibbs style he fought through and showed some great speed. Luke was top-two both times at the first turn, and got a really good first moto result. He crashed in the second while in a good position, but then worked his way back to a podium. Hopefully this result gives Luke confidence to push for top three in the championship.”

Kirk Gibbs – KTM450SX-F: “Again I’m not happy, obviously the fitness is there and it feels like the speed is there, but I’m not getting away early and it’s too hard to make it up. The first moto was really tough with lappers, with the track being wet there was only one real line and I got caught with them and went down a few times. The second moto was a lot better, but when Clouty’s bike stopped right in front of me I had a bit of a wild ride trying to miss him.
The bike’s great and everything’s feeling really good at the moment, but without me getting off the line better, we aren’t getting the chance to race for wins, so we’ll go home and keep working on that and try to fight for some wins at Murray Bridge.”

Luke Styke – KTM450SX-F: “A great day! I changed my program up a little bit in the last few weeks and just set about trying to be more efficient on the bike and it helped a lot. My bike was awesome, and the changes we made going into the round improved our balance, too.

Practice and qualifying were good; I was on the verge of making it into Super Pole but got pipped on the last lap, but I stayed positive and really worked on my starts, and got two, top-two starts. First moto was solid – a slow start but a strong finish so that gave me some confidence. I was riding good in the second moto and holding second, but came unstuck and went down pretty hard. Then I just tried to regroup and battle all the way to the end from there. We went 3,4 for the weekend and I’m really happy.”

MX2 – Davey Motorsport rider Hamish Harwood moved into fifth in the MX2 category with his first overall podium of the championship, a brilliant second on the day behind Wilson Todd. Harwood was masterful in the conditions and rode off the back of strong starts to 2-2 finishes.

His Davey team mate and fellow former MXD Champion Egan Mastin had a day which was almost a polar opposite; penalized after qualifying fastest, he fell an estimated 7 times on his way to 12th in moto one, but caked his cooling system and cooked his bike in the process. He then ran a borrowed KTM250SX to the line for the second race, and without even the time to set the lever height, pulled a sixth place out of the hat for eighth on the day – enough to maintain his fourth in the championship, albeit barely.

Raceline KTM’s Jayden Rykers rebounded from a first-moto DNF with 8th in the second moto to be an uncharacteristic 14th overall.

Hamish Harwood – KTM 250SX: “The track was real tough, but I got a couple of good starts and managed to get good results. I was happy with 2-2 in MX2 and 8-6 for seventh overall in MX1 was great, since the top ten are all factory guys.

In MX2, Wilson was just gone and there was no one behind me so I was just doing my own thing. I only had one crash all day from six outings – a little tip-over in the last MX1 race. My strategy was just to crack it wide open and hang on, and it definitely got pretty loose at times. The bike got so heavy it was hard to do anything at all with it, and so sticky that your pants would stick to the seat, but I managed to keep it up. I’ve never really ridden mud that thick.”

Egan Mastin – KTM 250SX: “It was definitely a rough day, but it started good. I qualified first, but they docked me three positions for jumping on the yellow flag on the first lap. They were pretty hard on me – I didn’t jump the jump, I just took my wheels off the ground. In the first moto I got off fourth and worked up to second, I was battling for the lead on the first lap and ended up going down, and then I went down another five or six times after that! The bike was just fully caked and got heavily overheated but I got it to 12th. I’d blown a gasket or a seal or something so I borrowed a KTM 250 SX and ran it to the start line without even setting the lever position for me, and stayed in sixth place. So today was rough, but for the number of times I crashed, the outcome was okay!”

MXD – In MXD racing, Jy Roberts won from Cody Dyce and Hugh McKay, while the KTMs of Isaac Ferguson (10-11) and Morgan Fogarty (16,7) were ninth and tenth respectively.

Raceline KTM rider Fogarty was despondent at seeing his gap to the championship lead virtually double, but decided to look past the deficit to the next round.

Morgan Fogarty – KTM250SX-F: “I didn’t feel like I rode that well, but I’m just going to move on to Murray Bridge and have a better one there. It was gnarly here; it was a tough, tough day and I’ve never ridden mud that super-sticky. There was just one line, one big rut round the whole track. I’m not going to look at the championship situation today. I’m just going to put it out of my head and move on. It’s all good.”

Rising Star Rookies 250cc Championship – In RSR 250 racing, Western Australian Regan Duffy formed an unlikely bond with the Victorian mud, and executed the perfect race day by topping qualifying and checking out in both motos. However, the KTM Factory Junior Racing team rider was relegated one step on the podium behind Husqvarna’s Bailey Malkiewicz after he was judged to have jumped under a waving yellow flag during the second moto.

KTM Factory Support rider John Bova rounded out the podium with 4,3 finishes.

Regan Duffy – KTM250SX-F: “I qualified first and went 1-1 in the two motos, but I jumped under a yellow flag on about the third lap of the second moto and got penalised. They say the flag was waving and I say it wasn’t, but I have to take that. I had the perfect day until then. It’s funny, because the mud and the dirt was heavy, I found it like riding sand. To me, the only difference was that it stuck to you! I handled it well – didn’t crash all day and pulled away in both motos, so I’m looking forward to trying to make up seven points and fighting out the championship.”