Motorex KTM Off Road Racing officially launches 2012 team
Thursday, November 10th, 2011Note: Click on image thumbnail to view in high resolution. Once enlarged, to save, right-click on the image and select ‘Save Image As…’.
Motorex KTM Off Road Racing has announced that Toby Price, Chris Hollis, Ben Burrell and Ben Grabham will headline its 2012 racing program amongst a variety of championships and events.
Dual Australian Off Road Champion Price will return for his third season with the factory team, contesting the AORC series, Australian Four Day Enduro (A4DE), Hattah Desert Race and Finke Desert Race.
“We’ve got a strong team for this year, with two new teammates onboard,” 24-year-old Price said. “It’s great to welcome Chris and Ben to the team, plus Grabbo is very valuable as well. I’m sure we’ll feed off of each other and hopefully step up to the next level.
“This year was disappointing with the injuries, but I’m keen to get that number one plate back off Chris – it’s going to be different seeing it on another bike, especially on the same team! The pressure’s off me now though, so I look forward to a big year ahead.”
Price won the A4DE this season, as well as Hattah, however his title defence in the AORC series was cut short early after he suffered a wrist injury toward the season’s end.
New AORC champion Hollis, 27, is a welcome new addition to the Motorex KTM Off Road Racing team, set to defend his title and race the A4DE, while also planning to make his debut in the major desert races.
“I’m happy to be here with the Motorex KTM team and already I feel comfortable on the EXC range that I’ve been riding during initial testing,” Hollis said. “It’s exciting for me to join the guys that I’ve been racing against for so long, but there has always been a lot of respect between us.
“I can’t wait for the opportunity to add some desert racing into my program next year as well. I’ll definitely be riding the Hattah race, but we’ll decide on Finke as it approaches after I do some pre-runs. It’s something I want to do though, for sure.”
Another new addition to the team is 18-year-old Ben Burrell, who returns to Australia full time next season following a partial season of competition in Europe. He’ll contest the AORC series and A4DE in the E1 class, riding the 250 EXC-F.
“This is a positive move for my career, so I’m definitely looking forward to the future with KTM,” Burrell said. “I’ll be racing the national off-roads, as well as some state stuff. KTM has good teams all around the world, which is something that I’m a big fan of, so hopefully this is the start of things to come.”
Desert racing legend Grabham, 30, will focus on the major desert races in 2012 including Finke, Hattah and the Gascoyne Dash with support from HSE, while also competing for a fourth victory in the Australasian Safari.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, focus on the major desert races and one-off events,” Grabham said. “They are important for KTM and I’ll be riding the brand new 500 EXC in pretty much all of my races. I really enjoy the desert races, especially with the longer distances, so it’s a great switch that gives me a lot of motivation to do well for the team.”
Motorex KTM Off Road Racing team manager Brad Williscroft is excited for the season ahead, again campaigning an all-star line-up that will be certain to contend for titles across the board in the new year.
“We are very happy with the riders we have signed for 2012 and I’m confident that we can get good results,” Williscroft said. “We will have number one on our bikes in all of the major races with the titles our riders have won recently.
“To have Hollis join the team is great, he’s so consistent and always up the front doing battle with Toby. Obviously it was important to keep Toby on the team because it’s clear that he is the dominant guy in Australia if he can stay injury-free.
“Benny Burrell has also really matured, so we are happy to have him and I believe that he will really surprise a lot of people as he develops, most likely battling for the E1 championships.
“Grabbo will be busy in the major one-off races and I think we will get a lot of coverage from his results. It will be great publicity for the event and also KTM, so of course we’re 100 percent behind him.”
Visit www.ktm.com.au on the web for further information on the Motorex KTM Off Road Racing team, as well as KTM’s full model line-up of off-road and road motorcycles available for 2012.
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