Toby Price – From Dakar to go Super Truck Racing!
KTM-backed Australian Off Road Champion Toby Price’s claim to the unofficial mantle of Australia’s most versatile motorcycle racer is about to strengthen.
The 27-year-old Maitland rider who bounced back from a major spinal injury in 2013 by winning the Finke Desert Race in June, finishing runner up in the International Six Days Enduro in November and famously scoring a third-place finish on debut in the Dakar Rally – is about to go Super Truck racing.
And where else would the man who is fast becoming an off-road racing legend begin his four wheel racing career, but in Adelaide at the kick-off to Australia’s 2015 V8 supercar championship, the Clipsal 500.
Led by American NASCAR and Dakar Rally legend Robby Gordon, the Super Truck concept is a relatively new one which brings the growling, high-powered “Trophy Trucks” of off-road racing into black-top circuit racing tracks and arenas.
Possibly the most impressive part of the spectacle however, is the inclusion of steel ramps which add massive air time to the equation and showcase the vehicles’ incredible ability to soak up hard landings.
Price though, has one more bump in the road than everyone else, that being that the KTM rider is contracted to race in the second round of the 2015 InsureMyRide Australian Enduro-X Nationals at Sydney Dragway on Saturday.
No problem. With full support from his employer KTM Australia, Price will race the Super Truck in Adelaide on Friday, fly to Sydney to race his powerful KTM350EXC-F on Saturday …then jet back to Adelaide to race on Sunday!
“It’s going to be a gruelling weekend for him,” says KTM Australia’s National Marketing Manager Greg Chambers, “but if anyone can pull it off, it’s Toby.
“KTM came onboard, both with the idea and as a sponsor on his Super Truck, as a reward and a way of saying congratulations after the fantastic year he’s had since he came back from injury.”
Ensuring Price’s truck won’t sit idle on Saturday is another KTM connection – Queensland Trophy Truck racer Billy Geddes who in 2014 became the first man to complete the legendary Finke Desert Race twice on the same weekend – in a Trophy Truck and on a motorcycle.
The KTM Desert Racing Team helped Geddes out with his bike and preparation on that occasion, and Geddes will now share the Super Truck with Price at the Clipsal 500.
Toby Price – “I keep throwing myself in the deep end and hoping I can swim! This came about a little bit from doing the Dakar event, we finished well there and Robby Gordon competes in it, and he liked the idea of having me here. We got a few sponsors on board, and it’s great that KTM is a part of it, because it’s already got a lot of people talking.
“With two extra wheels and about another 600 hp it’s completely different to racing a bike, these trucks are very twitchy, with a really short wheelbase, and a lot of steering angle, so they drift fairly well. Monday Robby took me around and taught me what to do here and there, and by the end of it I started launching off ramps and jumping 45 to 48m!
“So by the end of it Robby was happy, and when you’ve got a legend like him saying you’re not going to look like a fool out there, I’m happy with that.
“I definitely don’t think we can beat these guys from America that race them all the time, but if we can get in the mix a little bit, it’ll be great. Me and Billy have been good mates since I started doing Finke, and last year when Billy did the double header at Finke, we tried to help him out as much as we could on his KTM, so there was no better guy I could think of to fill my seat than Billy, who actually races a Trophy Truck.
“Being at the opening round of the V8 supercars is a pretty big deal, and people at the Clipsal 500 are in for a pretty big treat to see what these trucks can do. They’re amazing bits of equipment that can really soar through the air pretty high and they’re loud and fast. Hopefully I can keep the thing on its wheels and have a hell time.”
