MOTOREX KTM TACKLE AN ICON Motorex KTM riders Todd Waters and Kirk Gibbs will undergo one of the genuine rites of passage of Australian motocross when they tackle the Manjimup 15,000 at Cosy Creek circuit, three hours south of Perth. The annual Manjimup 15,000 is an icon of Australian motocross, and not least of all because of the challenging Cosy Creek circuit itself. Considered one of the greatest traditional-style tracks in Australia, it was chosen as the site when Australia held the Motocross of Nations in 1992. The circuit, which blends deep, energy-sapping sand whoops with famous WA pea-gravel over hard pack, will get 5-600 riders over it by the end of the event, and form waist-deep ruts which demand not only a confident and economical style, but also supreme fitness and a modicum of guts. This year’s event sees a number of high-quality local aces pitted against American up-and-comer Weston Peick, a top-ten finisher in AMA motocross, and several Aussie professionals including KTM450SX-mounted Waters and Gibbs. Motorex KTM Team Manager Rob Twyerould was present at the very first 15,000 in 1979, and looks forward to exposing his young charges to their first ‘Manjimup’. Rob Twyerould – “Manjimup is an awesome track and it will be a brilliant experience for both the boys. There’s good prizemoney, an amazing track and they’ll get some pretty reasonable competition there too. It’s a harder event physically with five races of about 16 minutes on a track which, by the end of the day is always incredibly rough. I rode the first ever 15,000 as a C grader in 1979. Roger Harvey from England won it on a Maico 490. I’d also really like to thank Kevvy and Steve who drove the team truck back from Conondale to Sydney through the night last weekend, and Kyle and Ryan for a big effort in getting the bikes ready and crated on Monday to be here in time for us.” Todd Waters: “This is my first time here and I’m pretty excited. Some of the local boys here are normally very quick in the sand and I’m pretty keen to see how I compare with Weston who’s a top ten finisher in the AMA nationals. It’s always good to come to WA, it’s a nice place and KTM are based here so we stopped in there yesterday and met everyone and put some faces to some voices. I’m pumped that KTM are bringing us over. It’s always good coming to somewhere new and racing on a track that’s held a Motocross Des Nations is a cool thing. My background is from Cairns and I’ve always been more of a soft terrain rider, it’s only in the last few years I’ve taken to hard pack so that should help and hopefully we’ll have a good weekend.” Kirk Gibbs: “For me this event is just more experience on the bike and more race time, there’s no pressure, a little bit of money and some good guys coming to race it. I’m really looking forward to it. You can’t beat racing to make you faster and I think it’s been helping me in the long run. Since the start of the year I’ve been racing almost every weekend and it’s done wonders. I’m lucky, on this team they want you to do that and this is like a home town race for KTM. We were at the workshop yesterday to see how everything works which was great, and it should be an awesome weekend."
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 00:23:48 +0000
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