Image: John Pearson.

KTM Enduro Racing Team’s Daniel Milner has labelled his campaign at the 2018 Penrite Hattah Desert Race as the ‘most shattering’ of his career.

After qualifying second, Milner was in fine form to repeat his success of 2017, however race-day didn’t go as smoothly, losing eight minutes in the pits on lap three due to a crash that damaged his start switch after running second in the early stages.

Despite the setback, the popular Victorian was able to recover from the difficulties he endured, salvaging fourth outright while being credited third in the Over 450cc Four-Stroke division.

“Today definitely wasn’t what I wanted and it was the most shattering Hattah I’ve done so far,” said a disappointed Milner. “We were sitting in second, trying to do what I pretty much did last year and we had a game-plan there, but unfortunately the bike wouldn’t re-fire following the pit-stop.

“Then I came together with a lapped rider when I got back on track, stalled it and couldn’t get going again, but I had some help trackside with people giving me the tools to fix what I needed to at that stage. That put me back to around 12th position, so I just kept charging from there and never gave up on my way to fourth outright and the class podium.

“For me, that was really disappointing, although we did what we could and I couldn’t ask for more from the KTM 500 EXC-F in terms of set-up. A big thanks to all that helped us with this event.”

The race was ultimately won by rival Daniel Sanders (Husqvarna Enduro Racing Team), followed on the podium by Josh Green (Active8 Yamaha) and Lyndon Snodgrass (KTM Enduro Racing Team).