Toby Price gets Factory KTM Rally Ride
KTM Australia’s off-road racing legend Toby Price has achieved a ‘dream come true’ contract with the KTM Factory Red Bull Rally Racing Team to take in the World Motorcycle Rally Championships and the famous Dakar Rally for season 2016 and 2017.
Price received his contract in the final hours of yesterday evening, and after six years with KTM Australia he will fill the position left vacant by five-time Dakar winner and Rally legend Marc Coma, after the Spaniard announced his retirement just a few days ago.
Price’s story is an incredible one of sporting recovery and triumph over career-threatening injury. In April of 2013 he suffered a broken neck while racing in the US, but after completing a long and painstaking recovery, Price returned to higher levels than ever.
Victory in Australia’s biggest Desert race, the 2014 Finke Desert race, announced Price’s return to the top, and the Maitland racer has done nothing but gain momentum ever since, winning the Hattah Desert Race and Australian Off-Road Championship and finishing eighth overall in his debut ride in the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship.
Nothing got the attention of the world motorcycle media and fans however, more than when he completed a spectacular display of consistency and strategic intelligence in finishing third on debut in the world’s largest off-road race – the 9000-kilometre, 14-day Dakar Rally – and won the penultimate round despite having only just learned how to read road maps.
This year has seen Price’s tour of domination roll on, and having already has placed both the Hattah and Finke Desert race trophies in his cabinet, he currently leads this year’s Australian Off-Road Championships.
Price will complete his commitments with the Australian KTM Enduro Racing Team for 2015, however his obligations with the KTM Red Bull Rally team will begin much sooner, when he starts suspension testing nearing the end of August.
Commitments with his new job notwithstanding, Price will attempt to add the Finke and Hattah races to his calendar for the next two years.
Toby Price – “About two days ago I received confirmation that it was all going to happen, and then about 11 o’clock last night the contract came through – it’s now official and good to go, so I’m looking forward to beginning a new career path. I’m a little bit speechless still, but that’s where we wanted to end up and it’s a dream come true.
“It’s a full factory Red Bull KTM Rally ride, so it’s the whole deal. It might actually free a little bit of time up compared to the schedule I’ve had this year, but we have got a good schedule of rally racing and Dakar on the cards and we’re going to work hard on things and try to get a bit more experience at reading of the road books and things like that.
“It’s a two-year deal straight up, so we’ve just got to do things smart and make sure we look after ourselves. It’s a bit different to the bike that I rode at Dakar this year, so we are looking forward to getting on it and seeing the potential of it and where we can go with it.
“It’s definitely a bummer that Coma has retired and gone out of the racing, but at the end of the day it opened the door for me to be able to get onto the team, and start learning from the best crew out there. That said, we’re definitely not expected to fill anyone’s shoes, Coma is his own rider, and we’ll just look to seeing what Toby Price can do.
“This is the best place to be, that proved they’ve got the winning team, and a good crew of people there to do the job right, so we are in good hands and we’ve just got to grab this experience with both hands and just try our best to learn as quickly as possible and learn the smart way to do things and have a good time doing it.
“After suspension testing in August, it will pretty much kick off for me, and the rally bike will get shipped back to Australia for me to train and practice on. Then I think the first ride will be the Atacama Rally, then Peru, Morocco and it leads up into Dakar.
“My schedule is going to be a lot busier by the end of the year with all the testing, but we’re looking forward to doing it. I’m also looking into the possibility of trying to race Finke and Hattah next year. They are my two favourite races on the calendar, and desert racing is the direction I’m heading so we’re looking forward to seeing if it fits. The factory has reacted positively to those suggestions, but it’s up to them ultimately.
“It’s exciting times, and we’ll put a lot of work in and definitely go back to Dakar better prepared than what we were this year.
“I’d really like to acknowledge the help and support of Jeff Leisk and Grabbo this year, it’s been astounding and I can’t thank them enough. Jeff has always had my back with my goals and visions that I’ve had, and he’s let me chase them as much as I possibly can without doing anything too silly to compromise my racing year.”
Ben Grabham – “Since Dakar it’s been pretty straightforward that he deserves a chance to do the world rallies and Dakar again at the highest possible level. And what better team, they’ve been the number one team for a long, long time. The big feller definitely earned it, so it’s great to see really.
“Toby will finish out the off-road championship with us this year, then turn full on to his rally career.
“He had those guys in his corner to a certain extent last year, but now they’ll put everything into him, and they’ve been the number one team for a long time now so with 13 or 14 years of Dakar-winning experience behind them, there’s no question he’ll ask or problem he’ll have that they haven’t seen before or don’t know the answer to.”
Jeff Leisk, General Manager KTM Australia and New Zealand – “It feels really good to see this unfold. Toby is our most popular rider, I think there is no disputing that. These days his results in desert racing are legendary, and he shocked everybody with his podium finish in the Dakar last year. It’s just so pleasing and gratifying to see that effort be recognised by the factory, and for him to get a ride with the KTM Red Bull Factory Rally Team is an absolute remarkable achievement. We’re are all just so excited for him.
“The first time we saw him up at Finke, I was down at the second fuel stop on the first day at the 160km mark when both Toby and Ben came into that fuel stop virtually side-by-side and we had to fill them up both at the same time. That’s when I suddenly realised that this guy, in his first attempt at Finke, was something special. He won that race too, and that’s when I first realised that this guy had a bucket-load of ability. He’s very unassuming, even talking to him at Finke this year after he had his run down and obviously the foot was not that flash. He was in a lot of pain, just sitting there icing it every few minutes, but he was just cool and calm. He’s just like a big kid at heart, totally unassuming, but, man, when he gets on that bike he does some mind-blowing things.”
