ENDURO » KTM’S BOYLE AND PRICE OFF TO POSITIVE STARTS AT KTM ENDURO-X NATS KTM Enduro Racing Team riders Toby Price and Peter Boyle got their seasons off to positive starts as the opening round of the KTM Enduro-X series took place at Brisbane’s Archerfield Speedway, taking third and fourth overall behind race winner Chris Hollis and Daniel Milner. In his first race on Australian soil since a serious spinal injury suffered in April 2013, Price looked dangerously close to his best, winning the fastest lap shootout on his KTM350EXC-F and tallying three, third place finishes for third on the day. This came despite the Maitland ace being handicapped by three mid-pack starts on a track many found near impossible to pass on, and only competitive hunger and bullish intent on the first lap enabled him to progress far enough to feature on the day’s podium. Team mate Peter Boyle showed his star quality in no uncertain terms with a cunning Race One win which saw him right there to capitalise on a fall from race leader Milner, then fend off a hard-charging Chris Hollis to secure the first race win of the series on his KTM250EXC-F. Poor starts and falls meant the Gippsland ace could only post 1, 4, 7 results for fourth on the day. KTM Enduro Racing Team Manager Brad Williscroft: “It’s good to get that first race of the year out of the way and see where we stand. There are a couple of things we’ll take away and work on for round two in Sydney, but starts today had a massive bearing on the race outcome as we saw today with Toby getting mid-pack starts every race and struggling to get through. Peter had that awesome first race, he got that great start behind Milner and he kept the pressure on him for three laps until Milner fell, then he hung on for the win. Toby was pretty consistent, he had the pace but he couldn’t get to the front to battle with those guys. He’s disappointed with his result but he came away with no injuries and a little bit of work to do. Hopefully the track will suit us a bit more, be a bit more technical and with more passing opportunities.” Toby Price: “That was a bit rough. I was feeling good all day and my lap times were good, I just came to the three heats and my starts really let me down. It’s a bit of a bummer, I’m a little bit disappointed but hey, it’s my first ride back. We’ll go home and get some starts dialled – we need to get a KTM up on the top of the podium. It’s not too far away - we’ll get it. It’s great to be out there racing again. The KTM350EXC-F is awesome, it’s the best bike I’ve ridden for this enduro cross stuff, I’m really stoked with that. Now we’ve got the race jitters out the way we’ll be good to go for the next one.” Peter Boyle: “It’s a hard one; I started off really well but didn’t finish off that flash. Still, I got to see where I’m at with those boys and I know I can do it now so that’s good. In that first race I saw Daniel wasn’t as quick through the logs so I thought I would get onto him and try to put some pressure on and he crashed. I knew Chris was coming so I just tried to block the lines he could pass me on so I could get the win. In the second race I got caught up in the gate a bit then caught up in a few other little sections and had a spill trying to come back through. It’s frustrating, the 250 was brilliant through the corners and the log sections - I couldn’t ask for much more so I thank the KTM team for it.” 2014 KTM Australian Enduro-x Nationals Dates and Venues: Brisbane Speedway, Archerfield Sunday 2nd February 2014 Sydney Speedway, Parramatta Saturday night 15th February 2014 Melbourne Calder Park Raceway Sunday 2nd March 2014
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 00:31:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015