KTM Australia press release:

KTM Enduro Racing Team riders Toby Price, Tye Simmonds and Daniel Sanders have dominated the top placings at this year’s Hattah Desert Race near Mildura, finishing first, second and fourth respectively.

Price once again demonstrated why he is Australia’s King of the Desert, showing complete mastery of the unique Hattah conditions aboard his KTM 500 EXC to win his fifth career Hattah race.
The first rider away after setting the fastest time in Saturday’s prologue, Price exploded out to an early lead before settling into a steady race-winning pace that yielded a 3 minute victory over similarly mounted Simmonds, with Josh Green third overall.

Daniel Sanders gave away a mountain of top speed to the big-bore 4-strokes, but as the race went on and top speeds became less reachable Sanders capitalised more and more on the superior manoeuvrability and large, 19-litre KTM Power Parts fuel tank of his ‘little’ KTM 300 EXC -as well as some frenetic riding. He took over fourth place at the start of the final lap and won the over 250 2-stroke class.

Perth motocrosser Louis Calvin who finished third in last year’s Hattah found the going somewhat tougher this year after prologuing 10th fastest on Saturday. Calvin struggled in the dust during the early laps, leaving the track several times, and spent the rest of the race redressing the damage to eventually finish eighth. KTM Junior Racing Team rider Mason Semmens also led home a KTM 1-2 at Hattah, winning the 13-16 years 150cc class on his KTM 125, ahead of Jed Polomka, with the Husqvarna of Billy Bray in third.

Toby Price – KTM 500 EXC – “Another win today and I’m stoked. It was a good run, after winning the Prologue yesterday we started off from the front and I think that definitely helped, the dust was thicker in the first part of the race before the track chewed and exposed a little bit of moisture in the sandy parts. In the first couple of laps I put on a really good charge and pulled a bit of a gap, and after that I settled into a comfortable pace in and felt really good. The whole team worked really well once again and gave us the equipment that we needed to get a 1-2, as well as a fourth place position and Louis in eighth. It’s unreal. The whole crew did a really good job on our pitstops, Mick Carusi did a really good job prepping all our bikes and Grabbo has done an amazing job is always. The whole team, Mick and Trav and Blizzard, those guys have done in a real job.”

Tye Simmonds – KTM 500 EXC – “It was a good day, I loved it back in the day when I did it so I kind of had big expectations and in the end we got there so I’m over the moon. It was so much fun; the first four laps before it started to get a little bit rough, I was having an absolute ball. Obviously there is a reason why Toby is the number one and he showed again today that he is the man to beat. We got a good start and yesterday we walked 8K of the track, so I was all over his wheels for the first 8 kays, but then we got to a new part of the track that I hadn’t seen and he checked out. After that I had a lonely race; Toby was gone and I pulled a gap pretty quick on third, and I don’t think it really got under a minute and a half. Mick, Trav and Grabbo, they set everything up perfect for us, we didn’t even have to do much testing this week, I think we changed a few clickers and that was it. That was all we had to do. So that tells you how good our bikes are and how good we’ve got everything set up.”

Daniel ‘Chucky’ Sanders – KTM 300 EXC – “I said I would be giving it a crack and I was swinging off it – I’m stoked with fourth-place. I struggled big-time on the first lap just because it was a flat track the whole way around. S just couldn’t get my legs up the front so I was just hooning it off the back. But after the first lap I could just come in and drag the pegs in the corners, I was pretty much just standing up the whole way and giving it full gas. The 300 really liked that stuff and in the rough stuff it was really good, it could cut across lines and break a bit later and you would miss all the choppy stuff, you can be real choosy with the lines in the tight stuff because it was so manoeuvrable. The weight was a bit different with the extra 10 kg off the front to what you would usually run, but overall I probably saved 2 minutes with that big tank being on. The track wasn’t as rough as I expected to be, but the straights were just really hard to get onto in the end. I was just flapping off it holding on, I caught fourth place at the start of the last lap but I didn’t know how far behind me fifth place was, so I was pushing super hard. Grabbo was stoked with me.”

Louis Calvin – 500 EXC – “The start really killed it for me, I was going off track a heap and getting stuck in the dust, it wasn’t the way to start, I just made more work from myself. Aut I rode good, made some really good passes, caught up a lot of time so I’m pretty happy with that. It was another tough race but I just need to keep at it and do more of them. I haven’t been able to do much this year, just been so busy building my house and we had a baby six weeks ago – it’s been flat out this year and the preparation has sort of suffered a bit, but it was still a decent effort I think, and it was awesome fun.”

Ben Grabham, Team Manager – “We had a fantastic day, Toby got his fifth win, Tye got second outright to Toby, then Chucky on the mighty 300 came in fourth. We had a 19-litre KTM Power Parts tank on that thing and it worked out great. He passed a few people when they were doing a fuel stop each lap and he was able to soldier on. All of them rode great to be honest. Louis had a little bit of a tough run compared to what it did last year in eighth. He didn’t prologue that well in 10th, but he rode solid and beat a few good guys.
I’d also like to say a special thanks to QuickFix Motorcycles, our KTM dealership here in Mildura, they’ve lent us vehicles and workshops and just been a very big help this week.”

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