The 2009 events will take place in the Central Austrian town of Erzburg from Jun 11 to 14th and has grown in a few short years into a must do event for the worlds toughest riders, less than a handful ever finish the brutal test of man and machine.
Whilst KTM's Chris Burch has held up the ANZAC end of things with podium finishes not many form our region have made the attempt. The 2009 version will see no less than four Australians having a crack.
The riders are, Mark Portbury , Dean Minichillo , Martin Orchid & Travis Cooper , This will be Portbury's second attempt. Mark made it to check point 12 out of 16 last year and finished in position 72 out of 500 starters, This year he wants to be the 1st Australian to finish the event in the allotted 4 hours.
Rob & Lauren Portbury (Marks parents) as well as father and son Travis and Steve Cooper went over last year to help Mark.
"This year Travis is riding as he saw it last year and wants to give it ago, at only 14 years of age if he qualifies he will be the youngest in the world to start the event." Steve Cooper said.
All the Australian riders will be on KTM 2 Stroke bikes .
The team leave for Austria this Saturday with the riders, as they need to get our bikes sorted at the KTM factory .
All up there are about 15 people from Australia going along to help get out the Aussie contingent.
Keep an eye on Fullnoise in the coming weeks as the team will be sending in some updates.
Main Photo: The crew ready to go
