KTM Australia press release:

Champion efforts by all three of the KTM Enduro Racing Team riders in gruelling sand and dusty conditions have yielded impressive results as the Australian Off Road Championships continued with rounds three and four at Hedley in Victoria.

Maitland ace Toby Price maintained his lead in the championship despite falling in the first corner of Saturday’s three hour cross-country event, where he was forced to claw his way forward through the pack in thick dust.

Despite falling several more times as he surged forward in the tricky conditions, he impressively salvaged fourth place for the round. Normal service was resumed on Sunday however, when the defending AORC champion and his KTM 500 EXC dominated proceedings; winning all five sprint rounds to leave Victoria still at the head of the championship table.

Price’s young teammate Daniel Sanders claimed the best round result of his short senior career when he powered his KTM 300 EXE to second outright on Saturday, and taking E3 class honours for the day. Sanders was fourth on Sunday behind Price, Josh Green and teammate Tye Simmonds, who rebounded from a Saturday DNF to win the E2 class and finish third outright on Sunday. In the Transmoto 19 and Under Class, Boltons KTM rider Tom Mason took back-to-back victories to extend his lead in the overall standings.

Toby Price – KTM 500 EXC – “It wasn’t the best weekend but we still came out pretty good. Saturday was a pretty tough day, I had a fairly decent get off in the first turn, and had to come back from second last position all the way back to forth so was a bit of a charge and in the dusty conditions I had another three crashes over the three hours – just getting caught up in dust and I couldn’t quite see. But we recovered well and Sunday we redeemed ourselves a little bit by winning the five sprint laps which is always a good sign coming off a three-hour cross-country. There were a few sore bodies but we got through and got the outright so all in all, a good weekend.”

Daniel ‘Chucky’ Sanders – KTM 300 EXC – “Nailed it! I knew it was coming. The class win and second outright was an awesome feeling, finally able to prove to myself that I’m capable of running at the pointy end, so it’s good to get that under the belt and now the confidence is there with my fitness and stuff. It was pretty dusty and I stuffed up my start and by the time I launched there was just dust going everywhere, but I pushed through to the front and got some clean air. I led three laps but by then the filter had blocked up so on the fourth lap I had to let greenie go by – and he was hooking anyway. Today we were fiddling around with a couple of bits on the bike and the wet grass in the morning gave the four strokes a bit of an advantage. I was crashing and still finished fourth outright though so I was happy with that and second in the class.”

Tye Simmonds – KTM 450 EXC “We were pretty bummed after Saturday, but it’s not really anyone’s fault, the track was just really dusty and it was really, really fine dirt, so there were a lot of people who had the same drama. We probably could have pitted but the race was actually longer than it was supposed to be, had it only been eight laps like it should have been, I would have finished. I was pretty gutted.
Sunday morning I felt like a 50-year-old man – I definitely struggled when I first got on but once I was on the bike and got the first 2 minutes out where you were hurting pretty bad, the body warmed up and you forgot all about it. It was good to get the full weekend in, and we had a good enough result today to turn it all around and finished third outright. I’m pretty stoked on that.”

Ben Grabham, Team Manager – “Saturday started pretty well for us, Daniel’s second outright is his best round result ever, and I’m pretty excited for him. Toby went down in the first turn and pretty much came from last all the way back through to fourth, which was impressive. I was walking around and it was mega-hard for them to pass – it was just fluffy ground and everyone was sort of in groups and it made it really hard to get through so he did really well. Tye had an average start but he got through to the top three, then tightened up a bit and came back, but with an hour to go he looked really strong and was coming forward again, but with half a lap to go we got a bit of dust into it and it said no more. I’m a bit dirty on myself with that because I had the boys doing the fuel stops and I was doing the filters. We had our figures based on the other boys and our experience but Tye was maybe a bit more aggressive with his passing and spent a bit more time in their dust. With the sprint format, all three did amazing. Toby won all five laps outright, Tye did really well today – every time we throw him on he seems to be improving, and won the E2 class today, so that’s really good for him. Daniel rode really well as well, he got fourth outright and second in E2 to Toby. Three in the top four was really good for Sunday, because it was a really tough weekend for them.”

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