Wade Young Wins 2018 Red Bull Romaniacs

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South African, Wade Young takes record-breaking win as the 2018 Red Bull Romaniacs lives up to its ‘World’s Toughest Hard Enduro Rallye’ billing.

24-year-old Sherco Factory Racing rider Wade Young has entered the record books by winning the 2018 Red Bull Romaniacs. At the end of an epic week-long battle, Young was joined on the podium by closest challenger all week Manuel Lettenbichler. Jonny Walker finished in third and remains the World Enduro Super Series points leader after four of the eight round series.

In a very global Romaniacs results list Austria’s Dieter Rudolf won the Silver category, Brazil’s Gianino Coscarelli claimed victory the Bronze victory and Lithuania’s Mindaugas Simkevicius topped the Iron class. 

 

Photo Credit: Andrea Belluschi/Future7Media

Decisive day four

With just four minutes separating Young and Lettenbichler entering the final day of racing at Red Bull Romaniacs, the outcome was too close to call. 

Young led the field away and pushed hard from the off. But Lettenbichler was making time in the early sections and by the midway point had caught up to Young, bringing Walker with him.

On a technical climb after the service point Lettenbichler found a way past the Sherco rider and suddenly it looked like the fight for victory was weighing in the 20-year-old German’s favour. However, the South African had other ideas and after taking a moment to regroup he made his break with about 20 kilometres to go. 

Pulling clear, Young charged his way into the Gusterita finishing arena and achieved a life-long goal to win Romaniacs: “I can’t believe it, I am over the moon to have won. It’s been such a long race and so tough. Manni caught me early on today. He would gap me on the hills and then I would have to charge on the fast sections to reel him back in. It went like that for the whole day right until the last couple of checkpoints where I was able to break away from him before the finish. It’s always been my goal to win here and now I’ve managed to tick that box. It’s the toughest race in the world and it feels awesome to have won it.”

 

Photo Credit: Robert Lynn/Future7Media

Letti pushes all the way

Ending his participation in the 2018 Red Bull Romaniacs in the best possible way with victory on the final day, Lettenbichler also secured his debut Red Bull Romaniacs’ podium result: “That was so gnarly.” Said Lettenbichler at the finish. “Wade and myself pushed hard today and rode it like a motocross race – a six-hour motocross! I gave my best to try and keep him behind me, but every time I gapped him, he fought back. My strength this year was on the hills — I think that comes down to training, good bike set up and determination. With a podium result at three rounds of the WESS championship things are starting to look good. Jonny has a bit of an advantage, but the gap is reducing.”

 

Photo Credit: Robert Lynn/Future7Media

For Walker, another strong ride saw him cement his position of third overall in the Hard Enduro Rallye. However, with Lettenbichler securing his third top three result this season, he now moves to within 185 points of series leader Walker as they tick off the fourth round in the championship.

“Congratulations to Wade and Manni — those guys were really on it for the whole event.” Walker commented after the podium. “I gave my all today and I’m pleased with the outcome of this race as I had plenty of issues during it. But I kept pushing on and focused on maintaining my lead in WESS. I’m looking forward to the next round — Red Bull 111 Megawatt. I’ve won it three times, so I’ll be pushing for a fourth.”

 

Photo Credit: Andrea Belluschi/Future7Media

Behind the top three, Billy Bolt finished fifth on the final day of racing to end his Red Bull Romaniacs in fourth overall. Building pace throughout the week, a very happy Alfredo Gomez took fourth on Off Road Day 4 to complete the top five in the overall classification.

Just missing out on an overall top five position, Paul Bolton was sixth, while David Cyprian was seventh. South Africa’s Blake Gutzeit was eighth, Mario Roman ninth and Philipp Scholz rounded out the top 10.

The World Enduro Super Series continues with round five at Red Bull 111 Megawatt in Poland on September 8-9.

Results Red Bull Romaniacs, Off Road Day 4:

Gold Class

1. Manuel Lettenbichler (KTM - GER) 4:58:48
2. Wade Young (Sherco - RSA) 5:00:37 
3. Jonny Walker (KTM - GB) 5:06:17 
4. Alfredo Gomez (Husqvarna – ESP) 5:19:23 
5. Billy Bolt (Husqvarna – GB) 5:24:48 
6. David Cyprian (KTM – CZE) 5:56:18 
7. Paul Bolton (KTM – GB) 5:56:31 
8. Blake Gutzeit (Yamaha – RSA) 5:56:45 
9. Mario Roman (Sherco – ESP) 6:01:09 
10. Philipp Scholz (KTM – DEU) 6:17:56

2018 Rattlesnake National Enduro

Josh Toth claimed his first-ever national enduro win at this weekend’s Rattlesnake Enduro, round six of the Kenda AMA National Enduro Series in Cross Fork, Pennsylvania. With the win, the FMF/KTM Factory rider moved into a two-way tie with Steward Baylor for first place in the series

Romaniacs!

Bolt Claims Red Bull Romaniacs Prologue Win

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Billy Bolt claims his first Red Bull Romaniacs Prologue victory ahead of Wade Young and Taddy Blazusiak.

Round four of the World Enduro Super Series got off to an exciting start with teh prologue today where Billy Bolt claimed Gold class honours. With the streets of Sibiu lined with thousands of Enduro fans, three action-packed finals concluded the opening day’s action in mixed weather conditions. Brazilian Gianino Coscarelli claimed the Bronze class victory in the first of the finals, while Austria’s Dieter Rudolf proved the rider to beat in the Silver category.

Setting the fastest time in a wet qualification session, Manuel Lettenbichler was keen to turn that speed into a winning result in the 35-rider Gold class final. However, Bolt had other ideas and immediately took control of the race lead following the Le Mans style start.

 

Photo Credit: Future7Media

With the track heaving with competitors, the British rider kept his cool as he navigated the obstacles with an ease the rest of the field didn’t master. Opening up an ever-increasing lead during the 15-minute final, Bolt lapped the entire field to claim the win. 

“It feels great to get a win in the bag already.” Said Volt after the final. “I know it’s only the beginning of a very long race but it definitely offers a good sense of confidence and motivation heading into the mountains tomorrow. The race was perfect for me — I think I led it from start to finish and lapped every rider. But of course tomorrow will be a different story. With this win I can start as the third rider and then see what happens.”

Behind him however the race was anything but sedate as Young, Blazusiak, Lettenbichler and WESS series’ leader Jonny Walker all battled for the podium positions. With a couple of laps to go, Young pulled clear to claim the runner-up result: “I’m really pleased with second place. I think it’s actually my first time finishing on the podium in the prologue, which is cool to finally get that done. It’s always impossible to know where you are in this race after a couple of laps. I knew I was in a good position and I was riding well but safe. I’m keen for tomorrow, I feel ready for it this year and want to put in a strong ride from the off.”

 

Photo Credit: Future7Media

Blazusiak got the better of Lettenbichler on the final lap to grab third: “I watched the prologue last year and it looked like so much fun so it’s been good to race it. The track rode really well and luckily it stayed dry too. It’s cool to be on the podium but third is a bittersweet position to be in as it means I’ll lead out tomorrow due to the reversed start order of the top three. I don’t have a lot of GPS experience, so with no tracks to follow it’s going to be an interesting start but I’ll give it my best, that’s for sure.”

 

Photo Credit: Future7Media

Jonny Walker completed the top five, with Pol Tarres sixth. Aiming for his seventh Red Bull Romaniacs victory, Graham Jarvis — the 2017 winner — got his week off to a comfortable start with seventh.

With the prologue complete, the starting order for the top three Gold class riders is reversed and will see Blazusiak lead the field out for the opening off road day, with Young second and Bolt third. The first off road day is set to be a challenging one as the competitors face a 160-kilometre ride across the Carpathian Mountains to Petrosani for the first of two overnight bivouacs.

Results - Red Bull Romaniacs Prologue Gold class

1. Billy Bolt (Husqvarna - GB) 11 laps, 17:50.377 
2. Wade Young (Sherco - RSA) 10 laps, 17:56.627 
3. Taddy Blazusiak (KTM - POL) 17:58.377 
4. Manuel Lettenbichler (KTM - GER) 17:59.877 
5. Jonny Walker (KTM - GB) 18:17.127 
6. Pol Tarres (Husqvarna - ESP) 18:34.130 
7. Graham Jarvis (Husqvarna - GB) 18:55.377 
8. Paul Bolton (KTM - GB) 19:04.880 
9. Alfredo Gomez (Husqvarna - ESP) 19:39.130 
10. Blake Gutzeit (Yamaha - RSA) 9 laps, 18:48.377

The IMPI Hard Enduro 2018 - Day 1 Time Trial

The IMPI Hard Enduro, set in the “Tribal Heartlands of Southern Africa”, is looking awesome in this video of the day one time trial at the 2018 event. It makes us want to get out there and ride.

Riders tackled a 25km time trial to determine start position for day two. Those 25kms don't look like a walk in the park mind you!

Ken Roczen interview

Before you can win races, you must first get comfortable with the pace at the front, and with every good start Ken Roczen gets, the more laps he leads and the more comfortable he is becoming with pushing himself at that elite pace at the front. At the 2018 Spring Creek National on Saturday, Kenny got the holeshot in moto one and tried checking out, but when that didn’t work out and he found Eli Tomac breathing down his neck, he never stumbled under the extreme pressure for 20-plus minutes. Eli was eventually—with the help of some oblivious lapped riders—able to get around the #94 about the 25-minute mark of the race and push Kenny back to a 2nd place finish in the opening moto, but it was definitely not due to Kenny’s lack of trying. In the end, Eli’s pace was just too much for anyone to stop.

Ryan Dungey said something on the broadcast about being impressed with Kenny not being afraid to fail, and I could not agree more. A lot of riders when coming back from a lengthy injury layoff will choose to forego the pressure of racing at the front when they know they don’t quite have the race pace and fitness needed to win. Instead, they will choose to race from the back with less pressure until they’re up to speed. That’s not the way Kenny is doing it, and each week he seems closer and closer to finally staying up front and scoring his first win of the year.

In the second moto at Spring Creek both Marvin Musquin and Tomac got away from Kenny, but he was still able to cross the line in 3rd. The 2-3 score on the day gave Kenny his second straight 2nd overall and Redbud and Spring Creek marked the first time all year that he landed on the podium two weekends in a row. He seems to have the consistency part of his comeback worked out. Now it is time to figure out how to win again.

After the racing was over, MotoXAddicts’ Chase Yocom had a quick conversation with Kenny about his Spring Creek National.

Ken, great day for you. Another week of positive improvements and results. You have to be happy with your Spring Creek National. Take us through your day if you can.

Absolutely, I’m pretty happy. This was probably one of the best weekends we’ve had. I was pretty good in practice, and I’m usually pretty far off there. We didn’t do any bike changes. That helped out a lot. Overall, we had a good day. Those guys were going really good. The track was pretty gnarly in the second moto as well. I’m doing what I can. I’ve been getting good starts and we’re—knock on wood—staying off the ground. I’m really enjoying the process, and I feel like once we win again, it will just taste so much sweeter. I definitely had a good weekend. Now we’re going back to California for a week and hitting up the surf. 

That sounds awesome. How much confidence have you been picking up leading the motos and all the laps that you have? In both the first and second moto you kept Eli Tomac behind you for twenty or so minutes.

Right now we’ve been doing a lot of changes to the bike because it wasn’t ideal yet. We want to get better and we especially want to use this year to do that and not next year. Next year we want to go for a championship. It’s good we’re going through all this. Today it was great to not have to doctor around with the bike too much. We’re going to keep it like that and hopefully ride the same bike. Obviously I’m going to California and we usually do some testing there, but we’re going to try to keep the same bike because I was pretty happy today. I’m sure once I ride the same bike over and over, that’s when I’m starting to pick up my speed and do my thing. 

The team came out to Florida and you guys did some testing and you were happy with it. If you made any changes today at all, what were they?

No, we just did a couple clicker changes for the second moto which I thought was good. Other than that, we kept it the same pretty much all day.

I love how you’re just all out there. The surfing, talking fishing for scallops [on social media] and all that. Does that help you out with the moto when you keep it fun and not completely focus on racing?

I mean moto is a big part of my life, but you have to have a life besides that. What a better way to spend an off weekend than to do something different. I’m a big believer in having a balance. 

I’m not going to lie, the scallops looked good too. (laughs)

Yeah, it was great. It’s kind of cool. I’m really into it—whether it’s fishing or even I would like to go hunting. You can catch your own food and it’s fresh. It’s great. I like things like that. 

They talked about you maybe racing Motocross of Nations for Germany in the press conference today and it sounds like you’re really excited to do that. How important is it for you to race that and keep the momentum you have going into the off season?

Oh absolutely, it’s huge! We’ve been having ups and downs, but we had another good weekend. That’s two good weekends in a row. We’ll hopefully keep building and staying the same consistency towards the end of the season. It’s just good to keep some momentum, prep in the off season but also take some down time and also do some racing with des Nations and Monster Cup. It’s always important to have some balance, but obviously I’m still way behind. All the other guys, they’ve been racing for three years straight and I’ve been out for quite a bit. Off season is where we’re going to make it happen, and hopefully we’ll be 100% next year.

The scary thing is, you’re saying you’re way behind, but you’re up there finishing 2nd.

I’m also saying I’m way behind because those guys kept racing and I was out. It’s really hard to catch up. Eli is in his top form right now and he’s been racing for the past few years without getting injured. That helps out big time. 

It’s been a lot of fun watching the crowd support for you. We love having you back too, but seeing the crowd loving having you back is cool. How cool is that?

Oh it’s great. The feedback that I’ve been getting is amazing. They make it all worth it and that’s pretty much why I come back to racing: because they support me the way they do. I usually take a lot of time after both motos to sign a lot of autographs and make them happy.

Yeah, I also see you on the podium too when people are calling your name. You’re always pointing at them and smiling at them. It has to be cool having a rider of your stature acknowledging them like you do.

It’s fun making a kid’s day. I used to be a kid looking up to people. There’s nothing better than getting a high five or a smile thrown at you.

Antonio Cairoli interview

Red Bull KTM Factory rider Antonio Cairoli isn’t about to give up his chase for that elusive 10^th world motocross championship. A qualification race win in Loket and second overall might be great for most, but for Cairoli, it was a step back as he watched his championship rival, Jeffrey Herlings go 1-1 on the Sunday.

Cairoli though is a wise old fox and knows that the next half a dozen rounds will be important for him to put pressure on the young dutchman, and maybe get some GP victories and close the 30-point gap to Herlings.

MXlarge: How was the GP for you Antonio?

Cairoli: It was a difficult week after we found out about my thumb, but Qualification was good on a dry track and it was easier to ride. Today it rained, and I couldn't really find a good rhythm; the track was very bumpy with a lot of ruts and I had a lot of pain, especially in the second moto and after the first fifteen minutes I could barely ride. I was fast behind Jeffrey but when he dropped the times I could not really follow him. Hopefully now we have more time to heal again and be in Lommel with less problems and pain and be able to fight for the win.

MXlarge: How is the hand doing?

Cairoli: It happened of course in Indonesia and my hand was feeling bad and I thought something was wrong. We did an x-ray and we saw the problem. I tried to ride on the Wednesday after Indonesia, but I couldn’t ride, so I rested and did physical training and then we went riding and it was a bad day, because I could hardly ride for 20 minutes. I went to my doctor and he said maybe we can do another scan, and he said let’s check. It wasn’t possible I had nothing, as I had so much pain and the scan took a long time, but we saw from the scan that I had two small fractures from my thumb, and that the capsular is open on my thumb, because I dislocated it. We were not happy in the week, because the hard pack of Loket made it tough. We did some laser for 24 hours, connected to this machine. I felt better on Saturday in Loket, and I took pain killers and I could ride and it wasn’t so bad.

MXLarge: As you mentioned, the track didn’t help your situation and you had to battle with some guys you would rather not battle with?

Cairoli: For sure this track is tough and its better when you are free and riding your own lines, than following somebody and having to change you lines because of other riders. With this pain, coming through the pack is difficult. My goal was to stay in front and be on the podium again. We have a week before Lommel, 10 or 12 days and Lommel isn’t easy, but it is like this.

MXlarge: We are ¾ of the way through the season, and the really important rounds coming up. Are you looking forward to that challenge?

Cairoli: I am really excited for the next rounds. We have ridden a lot of races and the points are close, so anything can happen, and I want to do my best and survive Loket and then in 10 or 15 days the thumb will be better, and I will attack more.

MXLarge: I know it is a long way off, but the final round is in Italy. To win the championship there would be something else?

Cairoli: It would be amazing, I have won a lot of titles, and I won in a championship in Faenza in 2012, but it is always special to win in Italy and I think about this, but my main goal is just race by race and try and be as competitive as before and not ride conservative.

Ryan Sipes Wins Pennsylvania Sprint Enduro Nail-biter

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Ryan Sipes won a dramatic LL Raceway Sprint Enduro in Fairmount, Pennsylvania at teh weekend, coming from behind in the final test to edge out Steward Baylor and Josh Strang – who crashed in the final corner. 

After struggling with the conditions on Saturday, Ryan Sipes entered Sunday’s round 22 seconds out of the lead but the Rockstar Energy/Leatt/Maxxis Husqvarna rider turned things around for an incredible cliff hanger finish to Sunday’s race. 

Winning all three of Sunday’s Cross tests and finishing with two seconds and a third in the Enduro tests, Sipes cut Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Strang lead right back. A crash by Strang within sight of the finish in the last test of the weekend sealed the win for Sipes and dropped him to third overall behind Tely Racing’s Baylor in the final results. 

“I was a little bit too cautious on Saturday and that put me down in the start order, which meant I was riding in the dust,” said Sipes. “I had kind of given up on winning the overall, but then when I won that first Cross test this morning it put me in a good spot and I was able to overcome the deficit.”

 

Photo Credit: Shan Moore

On Saturday, Strang came out on top of a tight battle with former motocross star Broc Hepler to lead the event after day one. The Aussie off-road star finished Saturday with a 12-second advantage over Hepler who had to pull out of day two after twisting a knee. Sipes, on the other hand, was way back in fifth, 22-seconds behind.  

On Sunday, Sipes cut five seconds from Strang’s lead in the first test. Baylor won the next test, an Enduro test, with Sipes in second and Strang down in sixth. Sipes won the next Cross test with Strang in second and Baylor in third.

Sipes went on to win the final Cross test and finish second in one of the remaining Enduro tests, leaving him 0.4s ahead of Strang going into the final Enduro test. After two days of racing and 11 tests, the overall came down to the final test.

 

Sipes was first to ride and turned in a strong time before waiting at the finish line. Strang also had a good test but lost his front end in a soft berm within sight of the finish: “Going into that last Enduro test I figured I could go faster than Sipes. I was feeling good and I think I was on a good run but I just buried the front wheel in a soft berm and the front tucked and that was it.”

Baylor moved into second with the help of Strang’s crash, finishing three seconds faster than the Husqvarna rider. “I just never could get a break to get up front,” said Baylor. “It was really tight racing and whoever was up front and out of the dust had the advantage. Strang and I went back and forth all weekend.”

 

Photo Credit: Shan Moore

Grant Baylor, riding the momentum of a big win at last weekend’s national enduro in Georgia, finished fourth, eight seconds off of Strang’s time. Layne Michael capitalized on a win in the final Enduro test to take fifth, 17 seconds behind Grant Baylor. 

Dissected: MXGP Pro

Diving into the new MXGP game

Monday, 16th July 2018 

Milestone have released many motocross games now, as the title that was released two weeks ago was their fourth MXGP game. It is incredible that a developer is so dedicated to the FIM Motocross World Championship but now, a little less than four years on from their first go, players demand excellence. Most are well aware that this is not their first rodeo.

Giving the fourth title in their franchise that name was supposed to indicate that Milestone were taking another step towards providing a realistic experience. The third edition was enjoyable for different reasons, but there were many quirks and faults that it was mediocre as a whole. It was possible to hit insane speeds and do flips down flat straights so, yeah, it was far from realistic. There was a lot of work to be done to this new game, hence why some were more sceptical than ever before. It seems the necessary steps were taken in order to produce a well-rounded game that really is realistic though.

It is normal to start a game with a stock bike and no additional parts, but that is never much of a problem. Throwing a game into a console for the first time and immediately taking a win against the hardest Ai, with pro physics and no practice laps, is quite normal, but this game is different. Although it is possible to do that on this, the physics ensure that getting lazy is just not an option. There have been a few comments online that the Ai are much improved and, although they have been refined slightly, it seems as though the physics are what really make the difference to players.

It is harder to win consistently, mainly because of the fact that throttle control and body positioning are so important. Coming out of a turn aggressively can be a recipe for disaster, depending on bike settings, and running it in hot can be as well. There is a chance that may sound familiar to the previous titles, as the second game punished those who attempted to force something. It was ridiculous on that title though and took away from the gameplay; it was just impossible to battle. This is different though and crashes only happen when required. It is important to stress that players can have close battles and get aggressive.

It has always been possible to change bike settings on motocross games from different developers, but doing that has never made much of a difference to the gameplay. One must get rid of that thought process now, however, as it is important to make tweaks before every race. It really does change the way that the physics work and how sluggish the bikes feel out of the corners. Going the wrong way with settings, which is easy to do, also makes it harder to ride and keep up with players online. Take note of the little hints and tips at the bottom of the settings page in the pit area. Those will alter your experience.

Expanding on the bike settings, a player must make changes to their set-up on every single track in order to be good at the game. Every change makes a massive difference to the way that bikes respond. It just keeps you on your toes, which adds to the longevity of the game. Every single race is different. Using the aggressive mapping whilst doing a mud race at Ernee is not a good idea at all, for instance, so things like that must be considered. It is also possible to make changes to suspension, the wheelbase, brake response and gearing. It is an in-depth experience and one that fans have just been crying out for.

The weather was mentioned there and is certainly worth expanding on. Milestone introduced muddy races on the previous game and, well, it was not good at all. It did not necessarily impact the way that bikes performed, but just slowed everything down and made it feel like you were stuck in second gear for a race. This is different though and more focus is put on throttle control, along with line choice. The popular lines do actually become slicker than other parts of the track. It is peculiar that does not happen on all of the circuits though; Ernee turns into an ice rink, but Villars sous Ecot just feels dry when it rains.

The greatest gripe that I have with the game is that the random weather option is really not random at all. If you start an online series, then it is almost guaranteed that eighty percent of the races will be run in the rain or on a wet track. It was the same on the last game, but it was possible to remove the random option on that one. However, for some reason, it is not possible to alter the weather online anymore. It really does take away from the racing and drive some players away. It is a minor thing, as a far as complaints go, but something that is really irritating.

What else stands out on the game? The previous FIM Motocross World Championship season featured a lot of different tracks (Pangkal Pinang, Ernee, Orlyonok, Ottobiano, Agueda, WW Motocross Park, Uddevalla and Villars sous Ecot), so all of those are new to MXGP Pro. Four of those were featured on the first two Milestone games, sure, but it is still nice to have some tracks that were not available on the previous game. It helps keep things fresh. Agueda is undoubtedly the best track on the game, as it is built perfectly and has so many different lines. WW Motocross Park was a little disappointing, on the other hand, as one part of the track is so narrow that it feels like you are trail riding.

All of those tracks are visited in the career mode, of course, which resembles the real series more than ever before. There are two options in the career mode; standard and extreme. The former allows players to alter settings as they wish, whilst the latter has all of the hardest options locked in. The only problem with the extreme version is that a player must run the races at full length and, really, who has the time for that? There are more credits on the line though, which would come in handy. All of the bikes, parts and gear are much more expensive than they have been on past games.

A final point to consider is that the Motocross of Nations mode has been removed. This is not too much of a loss, as it really did not add much to the previous titles. It is disappointing that Matterley Basin is not on the game though, because playing the new layout would have been very exciting. It would not be surprising at all if the British Grand Prix pops up as DLC in a couple of weeks though. Perhaps the Motocross of Nations will return in the next game? There will be an MXGP Pro 2 next year, as Milestone were scanning riders for that at Ottobiano a couple of weeks ago and confirmed the name.

Motocross fans have learnt to settle for mediocre games in the past. MX vs. ATV Reflex is used as the benchmark for games, mainly because of its gameplay, but most forget that it did not have a career mode and only had a couple of tracks. MXGP Pro is the complete package and a sign of just how far the industry has progressed. Forget what you thought of the previous Milestone games, as this appears to be a fresh start and is worth exploring.

Words: Lewis Phillips | Lead Image: Husqvarna/J.P Acevedo

Rewind: Price’s fifth-career Hattah win

Looking back at Toby Price's last campaign at the prestigious off-road event.

 

As the 2018 Penrite Hattah Desert Race looms this weekend, we take a look back at Australian off-road hero Toby Price’s last time at the popular event, which saw him chalk up victory number five in the deep sands of Victoria.

Just months after finishing on the podium at the prestigious Dakar Rally, which essentially launched his career on the world stage, Price piloted KTM’s off-road weapon, the 500 EXC, under KTM’s Enduro Racing outfit.

Donning the number one, Price set the tone for the weekend during Saturday’s Prologue, which saw him emerge fastest over a highly-competitive field.

The now Dakar champion demonstrated why he’s earned the King of the Desert moniker, blitzing the field from flag to flag to capture a stunning three-minute victory over then teammate Tye Simmonds and Yamaha’s Josh Green.

Source: Supplied.

“Another win today and I’m stoked,” expressed an ecstatic Price post-race. “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.”

The New South Wales native attributed a charge in the opening laps of the gruelling affair to allow him to bridge a gap over the field, ultimately seeing him settle into position and crossing the line in P1.

“In the first couple of laps I put on a really good charge and pulled a bit of a gap,” he continued. “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.”

In typical Price fashion, he credited the tireless work of the crew who ensured he flawlessly made his way through the four-hour journey, including the preparation in the lead up to the event.

“It’s unreal,” he said. “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.”

A member of the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team and a regular in the FIM World Rallies Championship, Price unfortunately won’t be making an appearance at the 2018 edition, which will be left the hands of his former rivals in the Australian off-road scene.

Celebrate the 4th!

Take a Vet riding.