If KTM rider Toby Price‰Ûªs unofficial title as Australia's most versatile off-road racer was in any doubt, the 27-year-old Maitlander‰Ûªs top-10 finish in his first ever international FIM rally competition may have put the question beyond doubt.
Price completed last night‰Ûªs sixth and final day of the Morocco Rally in eighth place, enough to give him eighth overall in the what was the ultimate round of the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship.
Price finished the day just four seconds behind Red Bull KTM‰Ûªs four-time Dakar Rally winner Marc Coma, who wrapped up the round win, and the 2014 title.
Australia's three-time Finke Desert race winner used his vast experience to begin the race intelligently, taking 15th on the first day, before moving into a rhythm and going on to mix it with the biggest and most famous names in the sport.
On Day 2 a damaged taillight led to a map-reader malfunction and ninth on the day, but after seventh on Day 3, Price ensured the international press knew his name when he posted his best result of the rally - a brilliant third place behind Dakar aces Coma and Sam Sunderland.
It's the second time a KTM Australia rider has gone to the finale and mixed it successfully with the world's best on FIM World Rally Championship debut, after Ben Grabham rode to sixth in the 2013 event.
The event has been the icing on a very spectacular cake for Price, after a 2014 spent juggling his way through two professional racing calendars; one for Desert racing and the other for off-road/enduro racing.
This year he won the high-profile Finke and Hattah desert races, the WA Desert Tri-Series, and the Australian Off Road Championship, as well as finishing second in the Australian four-day enduro championships.
‰ÛÏIt‰Ûªs been an unreal trip, to be with all the KTM guys here and have all those guys helping me out, and to se all the countryside that Morocco has on offer has been a pretty special thing. Just to finish the rally was the main thing for me but we‰Ûªre stoked on the result that came from it," Price said.
"On day two I had a taillight that snapped off, and somehow played up with my map reader, so I missed a way-point and ended up copping a 20-minute penalty because I couldn't actually scroll my map to follow the course and had to just follow dust a little bit.
"The rest of the week has been about slowly improving and getting better each day.
"The KTM guys, they don't say too much but I'm pretty sure they're happy. Every time I've come in they‰Ûªve always shaken my hand and been pretty stoked about everything. They keep calling me ‰ÛÏSkippy‰Û
