KTM Australia‰Ûªs Desert Racing Team achieved its most glittering finish yet in the most important event on its calendar; the Tatts Finke Desert race over the Queens Birthday long weekend.
The 480-kilometre, two-day return journey from Alice Springs to Finke saw Red Bull KTM Rally team rider Toby Price equal the record for the highest number of Finke victories, winning his fifth title in a stunning KTM 500 EXC trifecta.
Price‰Ûªs was the first of three spectacular runs, as he, second-placed team mate Tye Simmonds, and David Walsh - who rounded out the podium - all slashed significant amounts of their fastest times down to Finke and back, reaffirming the team's status as Kings of the Desert.
Price became the first rider ever to drop below the three-hour 50 mark when he stopped the timer in 3:46:55, with Simmonds the only other rider to do so at 3:49:42 - slashing almost 10 minutes of his rookie run of 2015.
Walsh‰Ûªs 3:52:11 would have won him the race last year, but the front men were all on a different plane this time around, Price literally so ‰ÛÒ flying the course twice as he successfully executed the Finke ‰Û÷Ironman‰Ûª feat of competing in both car and motorcycle divisions of the same event.
In typical fashion the man who won the Dakar Rally at only his second attempt in 2015 made it an outrageous success, winning the Trophy Trucks division and finishing as the second car overall.
‰ÛÏIt‰Ûªs a bit of a surreal feeling to have tied the record out here for the most wins." Price reflected. "I‰Ûªm pumped, and just glad the whole program we put together went to plan, we podiumed in the truck and then won the bike leg.
"It's been an amazing weekend. The poor old truck copped a beating this week, we flipped it on Friday when a part broke, but the boys fixed it and got it going again, and we‰Ûªre pumped. A lot of people doubted what we were doing, so I'm just glad that we came away with good results.
"I had a point to prove. I wanted to race the car, and there was a bit of a fire burning in my belly to get the job done on the bike. That was the best repayment that we could do for everybody that has jumped on board the truck project, and everybody that helped with the bike.
"I'm not scared of failure, I like to put myself out there on the edge, and set myself challenges. Sometimes it doesn‰Ûªt happen, you can't succeed all the time, but I didn't want to let anybody down here, so I just held that thing on the stop all the way down to prove I was capable of doing the car and then doing faster times than I ever have on the bike.‰Û
