The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team of Toby Price, Matthias Walkner and British racer Sam Sunderland heads into next monthās Dakar Rally ā that kicks off on January 3 in Saudi Arabia ā determined to regain the title it lost last season for the first time since Y2K.
All three riders know what it takes to win ā Aussie ace Price has won twice and Walkner and Sunderland have both taken a victory each ā but a lot can happen over 12 stages and almost two weeks of racing and Americaās defending champion Ricky Brabac (Honda) certainly wonāt roll over for the trio.
āItās good to be able to finally look forward to racing the Dakar Rally in just a few weeksā time,ā said Sunderland, who won in 2017 when the event was staged in South America. āTraining has been really good and Iām fully fit and eager to get back to some more racing.
āI know since the last Dakar the team have been working extremely hard on improving the bike and perhaps making it more suitable for the terrain that weāll face. It feels great to ride and the improvements should let us set it up even better than before. Iām really looking forward now to getting out there and trying it all out under race conditions.ā
The team will be joined by Dakar rookie Daniel Sanders who took the final stage win at this yearās Andalucia Rally just weeks after throwing his leg over a KTM 450 Rally for the first time.
