KTM Clean Sweeps AORC Round's 9 &10

KTM Clean Sweeps AORC Round's 9 &10

It was another clean sweep of the competition for Motorex KTM Off-Road at rounds 9&10 of the Australian Off-Road Championships.

Hosted by the Gawler Motorcycle Club in the moist sands of Kapunda in South Australia's Barossa Valley, the event was dubbed the best AORC weekend so far for 2010.
 

Motorex KTM's E2 class rider and outright leader of the 2010 AORC, Toby Price, has won all but one of the completed rounds and is looking like clinching his second consecutive Australian Championship in only his second full year of racing off-road.

 
Price planned his usual attack in the first lap of round nine's 3-hour Cross Country, where he fired his 450EXC-R into third place off the startline, only to catch, pass and pull a one-minute lead on the rest of the field by lap 2. In doing so, Price left his teammate and E3 class leader Ben Grabham to do battle with Yamaha's Stefan Merriman and Motorex KTM's E1 class leader, Jarrod Bewley. After a minor crash pulled Bewley out of the hunt for an outright podium finish, Grabham and his 530EXC-R continued to hold off Merriman towards the final hour of racing.

The WR450-F mounted Merriman eventually passed the E3 champ, but the ever-strategic Grabham simply tailed Merriman until the final fuel stop. In what was almost a reenactment of Rnd one's Cross Country in Port Mac, NSW, Grabham exited the fuel stop ahead of Merriman and literally checked out to take second outright behind behind his teammate Toby Price.

All three Motorex KTM Off-road riders took class wins respectively on the day.  

“I had a plan to just go hard off the start and grab an early lead, then just coast comfortably through to the finish ” said Price.

 
Motorex KTM Off-Road Team manager Brad Williscroft is very content with the boys performance of late. " Toby, Grabbo and Bewley are the utmost professionals of our sport today. They take their racing seriously and do what is necessary to get the job done. So far we've won all but one race outright and are leading every championship class of the AORC, which is a real credit to the entire Motorex KTM Off-Road Team. It's a good feeling to know we've got the best riders on the best bikes out there dominating each weekend." 

Day two's sprint played out the same way for Price having taken another massive win over the competition, only this time it was Merriman who secured second place over Jarrod Bewley, ahead of fellow teammate Ben Grabham for fourth outright. Both Jarrod Bewley and Ben Grabham have won every round in E1 and E3 class respectively for the championship and along with teammate Price, occupy the top three positions outright going into the final rounds of the AORC.

Jarrod Bewley has already wrapped up the E1 Champingship with two rounds remaining and may move up to the E2 class on a 450exc for the final two rounds.

Ben Grabham in action.

Jarrod Bewley in action.

Toby price in action.

The finale of the 2010 Yamaha AORC will be held September 4th and 5th at Cherrabah Resort (near Warwick, QLD). A presentation dinner at the resort will follow on the Sunday evening.