The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team of Toby Price, Matthias Walkner and British racer Sam Sunderland heads into next monthā€™s 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 Americaā€™s defending champion Ricky Brabac (Honda) certainly wonā€™t roll over for the trio.

ā€œItā€™s 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. ā€œTraining has been really good and Iā€™m fully fit and eager to get back to some more racing. 

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ā€œI 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 weā€™ll face. It feels great to ride and the improvements should let us set it up even better than before. Iā€™m 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 yearā€™s Andalucia Rally just weeks after throwing his leg over a KTM 450 Rally for the first time.