Toby Price paired up with Mike Brown to earn a fifth place finish in the San Filipe 250 desert race.

Motorex KTM Off-Road Team’s Toby Price shook off a mid-week illness to bring his team home in fifth place in at the 27th MasterCraft Safety Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 event in Mexico.

Price rode a KTM 450SX-F with American KTM factory racer Mike Brown in the 254-mile desert race – the first of three SCORE races he’ll do for the official factory KTM squad this year on the famous Baja Peninsula.

The result was made all the more impressive by Price’s interrupted build up to the race, which saw the KTM racer miss a day of course pre-running when he fell ill and was forced into hospital for tests – fortunately he recovered quickly.

For Australia’s top off-road racer, the SCORE Baja series is a chance to further build his name outside of Australia, and alongside Brown he made a decent start to that goal.

Brown took the bike away from the start, out to mile 148 where he handed over to Price in seventh place. The 25-year-old from Maitland, NSW then impressed many, running down three riders over the final stage of the race to elevate the team to fifth place.

“The KTM team performed great today, taking the win and getting both bikes to the finish,” said Price. “I was happy with my performance today and the experience here, I did the best I could and brought it home safe and sound.

“It looks like I made time on the front guys too but we’re still not 100 percent sure on that. I’m hoping I did. I really want to be here racing and getting on that podium.”

The Honda mounted duo of Timmy Weigand and Colton Udall have now been awarded with the overall win, while KTM’s Kurt Caselli and Ivan Ramirez move down a position to second.

Third place is occupied by Kendall Norman and Ryan Abbatoye, with Robby Bell and David Pearson moving up into the fourth place spot previously held by Brown and Price.