KTM Australia press release:

KTM Motocross Racing Team riders Kirk Gibbs and Luke Styke concede they could be racing in very muddy conditions as the New Zealand motocross championships draw to a close this weekend at Pukekohe.

The NZ champs are a traditional annual pilgrimage for the KTM Motocross Racing Team as it builds towards the Australian MX Nationals and Australian Motocross Vice Champion Kirk Gibbs holds second in the series behind defending champion Cody Cooper.

Gibbs has had two runner-up finishes from the three rounds thus far, both notably on tracks he had never seen before, and the Queensland-based South Australian hopes his experience and past success at Pukekohe will provide the catalyst for a barn-storming finish.Gibbs would need to make up 20 points on Cooper to steal the title, but stranger things have happened in motocross.

KTM teammate and MX1 rookie Luke Styke has had an up-and-down series results wise, but gained a mountain of experience in racing the 450s.Now recovered from the beating he took in the first turn last weekend when he was run over by a number of riders, the former MX2 Aussie Champ is hoping to go out on a high, though the predicted rain could provide an extra challenge.

Rob Twyerould, KTM Motocross Racing Team Manager – “Because the boys have stayed over here for the week in between races, Jordan’s got a full-day of preparation on the bikes today to get them ready for the weekend.

It’s the final round and I think we want to go out with a bit of a bang. It’s a track that Kirk has ridden before and done very well on, and it’s a really nice track, fast and undulating, with a bit of a supercross-style section.

I think the week has been really good, Gibbsy is just getting stronger and stronger, and he seems to be in the top five with every start now, which is really good, so I’m expecting a great weekend.

Luke’s been a bit sore this week from where he got run over in the first turn last weekend, but he practised yesterday and apparently rode really well, so I think he will be absolutely raring to go.”

Kirk Gibbs – “It’s been really good, we got to a school and did a thing for the upcoming race through KTM, and it was really cool to see all the kids and how excited they get. You forget about that, how young you once were, and how excited you were about all that sort of stuff so that was kind of awesome to put some smiles on some faces.
We’ve been staying at Mt Manganui which is a really nice place on the peninsula, so it’s just been a really good time. We got a big day in the other day, Ben Townley took us to a track he knows and we did another yesterday, and now it’s just started raining! It’s meant to get a lot of rain in the next couple of days so we’ll see, if it’s really muddy at this particular track, it could be pretty wild.”

Luke Styke – “We’ve been riding a few local tracks this week and got a few motos done, done a little bit of filming with Lusty Industries and Troy Lee. Start of the week I was just trying to get my body right, I was a bit tweaked up so I had to do the physio to get straightened back up.
I’m really motivated to do well this weekend, but there’s a bit of rain around so it might be a mud race yet. I go fairly good in the mud usually, so we’ll just take it easy and see.”

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