“Riding a bike for me is really just about the sense of freedom you get. I guess, you can be having all the problems in the world with everything going wrong and you jump on a motorcycle, and it just clears your mind. I’ve just enjoyed riding a motorcycle since the age of three, and I still enjoy getting out on two wheels and being a part of it all. The competitive side in me is quite strong, so I don’t like losing too much, but in the end, I just love being at the events and racing.” – Toby Price
Toby’s very first bike was a Suzuki JR50. “So basically it was a hand me down from my brother, and after a couple of months of riding on that thing, I started going quite fast and then I was doing jumps and things. I was probably going a little bit too fast and scaring my parents. I actually started breaking spokes because they were the little spoked wheels. So my dad ended up getting me on to a Honda QR50, which was the steel wheels, and I ended up snapping the frame on that bike. So my dad got me the PW 50, the Yamaha, which is meant to be a bit stronger. I think I snapped that one in half in about a month as well. So dad re-welded the frame on it, and it never broke again. I raced that bike for all my little 50 cc classes.”
Toby Price hails from the land down under and grew up on a farm outside Roto and then later Hillston where he frequently won New South Wales and Australian junior titles from 1994 to 2003. “My very first real race was at the Condobolin Auto Sports Club riding in a dirt track event. We went around there, and I beat the kids by a bit and then it just kicked off and went on from there. My dad use to race off-road trucks. So I guess I always saw my dad competing and racing as a little kid. I grew up on a big property and the only mode of transport to get around was either the car, which I wasn’t able to drive at such a young age or on a bike. So every time I wanted to go somewhere, I would come out to the shed and get my dad to get the bike out. Then I’d go off for a ride for the day. As a little kid I just loved riding the bike around the farm, and after winning my first race, I think that’s where the competitive side started, I wanted more of it.”
This competitive streak has brought its ups and downs for the first Australian to become the FIM World Rally Champion. “In my whole career, I’ve had a lot of injuries. Breaking my neck was the worst though. It changed everything along with my outlook on life. That’s where it kind of kicked in then that I need to take every chance and opportunity that I get. Getting hurt is the worst part of the sport. We don’t have any safety around us, and whenever you’re going to hit the ground, it’s going to hurt. Whether it’s bruising or skin taken off you, which you can put up with any day of the week, but a lot worse can come from that like broken bones and stuff.”
“But look it’s, I don’t know, it also just toughens you up for life I guess. Life’s not easy, and you’ve got to take chances and go for things in life without holding back. The injuries are at times a chance to reflect and look at how it went wrong, and what you can do to improve and do better in your sport. So in a way sometimes injuries are good things. Although, sometimes their timing isn’t quite right. Like when they happen before big events and races and everything like this, but they definitely don’t stop us. I think sometimes most of the injuries makes you even more determined to come back bigger and stronger. It’s the reverse psychology of it I guess. You have a lot of injuries, and people count you out and don’t believe in you or think you’ll never come back the same. When I hear this, it makes me want to come back more and makes me want to come back stronger. So being able to do that after all the injuries I’ve had and win championships. That means a lot. I like to prove people wrong.”
As such, one isn’t surprised at Toby’s viewpoint on the harder aspects of international rally racing. “It’s a mix of probably two things; one basically being the injuries. They are by far the worst part. And then being mentally strong to keep pushing through it and doing it. The mind is a very powerful tool. Your mind can talk you out of a lot of things if you let it, that’s for sure. It can talk you out of getting back into racing. But I don’t know. There’s just racing for me. It’s just very damn addictive. I think I’ll be racing whatever I can until I’m 80, 90 years old whether that be in a walking frame or a wheelchair or whatever. I’ll be in a nursing home trying to race the guy next to me to the tea machine and biscuits until I die I guess. I just have that competitive side of me, and I like to be the first in, best dressed.”
Up until October of 2015, Toby rode for the KTM Off-Road Racing Team from which he went on to represent the Red Bull Factory KTM Rally Team. “Look it was definitely a big change. I was racing in Australia for the factory KTM team in the off-road series, championship and desert races I had back there. But it was always my goal and my dream to race overseas professionally either in America or Europe. Probably around 2000, KTM was starting to make a pretty big impact on motorcycle racing and motor cross and trying to make an impact on supercross and. I was racing Kawasaki’s at the time, but you could always see KTM was coming on strong and putting in a big effort, a big push, and a charge. I’ve always liked the brand and loved the people involved in it, and I just wanted to be a part of it. And that was pretty much the same as with Red Bull. Red Bull sponsor very few and selected athletes. It’s a massive privilege. Every time I put the Red Bull cap on or my Red Bull helmet I feel proud.”
“I guess you wouldn’t say you’ve made it in life and you’ve achieved greatness because you always want to achieve more, but with the strong backing of Red Bull and KTM, a lot of things are achievable, and they can make things happen. We’ve been able to do that since probably 2010. Signing my first year with KTM, where we’d been able to win a lot of races and a lot of championships back home in Australia, and then I guess it gets to that point where you’ve won everything you can win in Australia, and you start to look abroad and want to achieve more. I mean it didn’t all fall into my hands or just fall into place. It’s been a lot of hard work and a lot of time and dedication doing what we need to do. But yeah, we got that first call to sign with the factory KTM, Red Bull rally team, we got to trial Dakar my first year as a privateer and was able to podium my first year, a lot of people were quite shocked about it. And I, honestly myself, I was too. I didn’t ever expect to see myself on a podium at Dakar. I was putting myself at about a five-year goal to be on the podium, and if I was able to do that, I was going to be really proud and pumped on everything that I’ve done.”
KTM has consistently beaten out the competition at the famed Dakar Rally since Fabrizio Meoni’s win during the 2001 event. The Austrian manufacturer has seen checkered flags on everything from the famed LC8 950R, the LC4 660R, 690 Rally’s and the current 450 class machines. However, Toby is quick to comment on what makes the orange giant so prolific at winning; “Look it’s not only the motorcycles they build that makes it really strong. But it’s the people that are behind the scenes that sometimes, most of the time, go unnoticed. It’s all the managers and the mechanics and everyone that organizes everything to go to the races. So without their knowledge and their support, I guess, it makes your job ten times harder. I’m able to just show up to the event and focus on the race and do what we need to do, which is the main thing and the main goal. You just try and repay them with a good result. A good solid result being a win or a podium. It’s always good to give back to the guys that are doing most of the work.”
“There are a lot of people that want to win. Not just you and they all give hundred percent. They share this lifestyle with you because they’re traveling with you. They live in bivouacs and you move around together, so they become your second family. You are always around them, and you make lifelong friends. Everyone that sits at home and watches on the TV, they see four riders on the start line, but there’s thirty to forty, or even fifty odd people that are behind the scenes. Probably thirty odd people that are at the event and at the race itself with you that help you and does the job of getting you racing. Then there are another thirty odd people back at the factory helping to coordinate things and do things. And then on top of that, you have the whole of the KTM squad backing you up. I wouldn’t even know how many employees are at KTM, but they are obviously big supporters. They build our parts, they make our equipment, they do everything, and without their strong passion for winning races and doing things, for being at the front and being proud of their work, it would become quite hard for us racing. So I always say ‘we,’ I never say ‘me’ or ‘I.’ It’s always ‘we won’ or ‘we want to win. It’s not “I’ that win races. Never. There is no ‘I’ in team.”
This year sees Toby return to the Dakar with the now legendary 450 platform that KTM has been perfecting since Marc Coma reached the top step of the podium in the 2011 Dakar Rally. “There’s really no special parts that are amazing on the bike. You do get the better suspension which is the factory forks and WP. What makes the bike great is that it’s built for my size, the way I ride and how I ride. There’s no limit to setting up the bike to the way I want it to feel and the way I want it to handle. So if we want a different linkage, if they don’t have it on the shelf or in stock, or if they have another idea they want to try, they will machine or source parts that we can go and test and try out. Sometimes we probably go through ten parts with only one or possibly two that work. So there are eight parts that are basically going to be thrown away. Whereas as a privateer you don’t get those options thrown at you which is a big benefit. As a privateer, you need to make sure you nail the right part on your very first try, otherwise, you’ve got a part that’s sitting in the top drawer of your toolbox that’s going to be no good to you, but you’ve just gone and spent $570 / 500 euros on it. Sometimes forks and shocks can be anywhere up to around $11 300 / 10 000 euros. So you need to make sure you nail it right and get it sorted. Whereas for us as a factory rider you get these endless options that you can try and test and develop for the bike to suit you. That’s why if I were to jump on Sam or Matthias’s ride, I’d feel completely uncomfortable. I’d still be able to ride the bike, but I wouldn’t be able to do what I wanted to do and feel comfortable or go and ride 6000 mi / 10 000 kilometers. It just wouldn’t be the best version for me.”
The Dakar Rally has seen its share of controversy over the years. But to most, it is in many ways the epitome of Rally riding. “It’s just, I don’t know, every time you finish the last Dakar, the very last day you’re just like; ‘Thank gosh that’s done. I don’t want to hear of Dakar. I don’t want to go near it. I don’t want to be seen around it. I don’t want to have anything to do with it.’ I literally think these kinds of thoughts which lasts for two weeks and then you’re already looking forward to the next Dakar. The biggest thing is the adventure of it and it basically being that anything can happen in that race. Everything can be perfect, and then you can get lost literally in the blink of an eyelid. That’s what makes it a challenge that you need to stay on top of your game the whole time. As soon as you let your mind slip a little bit, then it can change and turn around and upside down for you. That’s the adventure of it and the draw card I guess. If it’s a bad result in January, you always kind of wish there was two Dakar’s a year. But if it’s a good result, you’re like ‘I’m happy, I just want to leave that one alone for twelve months. It’s once a year, and you need to make it count!”
– A big thank you to the marketing team at KTM for arranging an interview during the build-up to this years Dakar Rally. We’d also like to especially thank Toby Price for taking the time out of his schedule to answer our questions here at ADVroad. It was an honor. We wish him and all the riders of the 2019 Dakar the best of luck. Ride safe, ride fast. –
All Images copyright KTM.
Great scoop!