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 events 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.
11/10/2011 3:29pm
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