BOUND FOR SPEED - KTM DESERT TEAM

do you know what it means to hold on for your life to maintain control while pushing your body to its physical limit to move through the landscape so fast it's like the ground is breaking apart beneath you this is desert racing ben grabham better known as grabo he's a professional dirt bike racer has been for 16 years it's what he knows it's what he devotes his life to and in the process he became the best grabo started out in the bush winning multiple australian enduro and off-road titles year after year but it was only a matter of time before he discovered desert racing a fast brutal and grueling environment grabo found his calling and went on to dominate every major desert race in the country hara kondo safari and the mother of all high speed events the fink desert race his name had become so synonymous with desert racing the people started to refer to him as the desert king great i give you time 350 859 with a round journey how do you rate this one in the four wins you've had in this great race uh it gets tougher every time the boys are getting quicker and quicker but grabo's reign was eventually broken enter toby price australia's newest dominator in enduro enters the world of desert racing albeit as graven's teammate for the first time in years someone has the ability to catch brahman the other interesting story about toby price is this is his first think he is the first king of the desert that has never ridden the race before in 23 years since 1987 we haven't had a winner that hasn't ridden the event before he's currently leading the australian off-road enduro series and he's the australian four-day engineer champion the 22 year old toby price gravo dnf'ed with the mechanical that year but a powerful rivalry had begun tommy how does it uh how does it feel to be king of the desert oh yeah it's awesome it's i've got no words to describe it um definitely didn't think i'd be standing up in the podium on my first trip out here but price got the taste of glory and he liked it he wanted more of it he wanted that number one plate just as much as the media wanted him fans flocked to see him kids loved him and if there was a race to win or a championship to be claimed it was price who wore the champagne at the end remains gracious in defeat and while he ever played second to price he never lost focus of his next win the price and grab and battle evolved and in the process they became a league of their own all other riders were competing for third place while price and graven pushed the limits of their bikes and bodies to breaking point on the 8th of april 2012 grabo suffered a major crash while leading the condo 750 rally remember looking at speedo because always look roughly as you can idea what we're doing i was up around the 150 mark and then i was just going down this fast straight and like it happened that quick i just remember seeing like a handful of kangaroos jump out of the grass and they were no taller than what the grass was and they just jumped straight on the path and i just remember going past say three of them and then just seeing two and knowing that there's no way i could get between them both and all i remember is pretty much just gripping the handlebars tighter and i can vaguely remember the impact and then i've that's all the lights out on so pitched head first into the desert at 150 kilometers per hour some would say it's a miracle he even lived it'd be easy to get spooked and and go like i shouldn't be walking and all this kind of stuff but but that's not the case and i feel good like i'm surprised like it's only been three weeks since i had surgery like today and i'm surprised how quick the body's bouncing back like i haven't had any pain meds since i've got home and and everything's been going great grabham is no stranger to pain he worked relentlessly to regain strength rebuild his body and reset his focus meanwhile price kept on winning unchallenged he went on to take his second fink desert race win graven continued to rehabilitate himself and six months after injury he rode to a top ten finish at the australian four day enduro then a top 20 finish at dhaka and by february 2013 he was ready to rekindle the rivalry with price but no sooner were the desert kings reunited tragedy struck while in america preparing for the baha 1000 price has a major high speed crash just as grabham had done the year before price suffers major spinal damage and must lay suspended in a halo for two weeks until he can be flown back to australia for critical surgery again it's a miracle he wasn't killed or permanently disabled but he wastes no time getting back on his feet and back to fink to support grabham's return to the big race the first time i got up i could only just just get up for two seconds and then like five minutes if you think about our top two riders which were a rock-solid pairing um you know we've been hit pretty hard in that respect and that said you know the key thing anyway at the end of the day is you know it's that they're they're both okay they're going to be okay and and ben's like you say made a an incredible recovery and even to be really honestly lining up you know this year for fink i think it's a remarkable achievement for him and um yeah and he's probably you know he's going to have to shake out a few uh a few nerves and a few probably you know apprehensions and so on his ability to tick the boxes and do the little things well is second to none i've got to tell you i've never met a more professional athlete now i've worked in football i've worked with professional cyclists i've worked with triathletes he's got this amazing ability to be able to compartmentalise or almost pigeonhole emotion which is is really really interesting to witness because it's really really useful for him and for me it had frightened me he has had his injury would frighten me and i think it would frighten 99 percent of ev of the rest of the world day one the desert king rides again but so much momentum has been lost speculation already suggests he'll never be the same after his accident is he not comfortable with the bike has the team failed to make the necessary preparations for this brutal race whatever the case it's clear grabham is not content right brother i think they're just in front of you bro on the home screen mate i'm i'm disappointed i'm pissed off i don't even know what position i'm in but i know i'd be 10 minutes behind the leaders which is not good enough for me it's one of those things like people they're gonna until i basically come back and win or the next race or win or beat everyone in a race like it's like anything they'll think okay he's done whatever but at the same time i don't feel i never feel i have anything to prove to anyone i don't care about that but i just won't give up until i achieve what i know i'm capable of my like i've like i said i've busted my ass to get to this point and it won't stop here day two grabbo leaves his pride in the desert and cruises to the finish in 11th place his overall time is 27 minutes slower than his previous winning time in 2011 injury aside something's not right if he's ever going to get back to winning it's got to be done his way for 2014 grabo has conceived kdm australia's first official desert racing team with his old rival toby price a new outlook new model bikes and the addition of some fresh talent ivan long the protege could this be the second coming of the desert kings with the team structure this year like we've got a lot of good guys and sponsors and they're they're all people that i've dealt with and had a lot of success with over the years and it's probably a bit smaller group than what we've had but it's just guys that get the job done and and make things happen like kdm australian perth everyone there just helps me whether it's the right gear whether it's getting designs done for graphics whatever and then the boys at the motocross team emu planes like they're helping us out with engines never gave gave us some amazing stuff to ride as you see today it's so fast what we got and then got guys like mike who's always helped me erase it just people like not that we've had bad people before it's just people that i can 100 trust and and just know that that everything's going to happen as it should there's no room for error and that's why all the guys all the products we're using it has to be 100 because you're playing with people's lives otherwise yeah me and grabber have come out of a bit of a dark hole but yeah for me it's been pretty recent and uh it's just good to be back out here like you say racing and riding and um enjoying it like you don't realize how kind of good you've got it and until it all gets taken away there for a bit so it wasn't a small injury it wasn't um six weeks out and then back into racing again it was it was pretty much a whole season was done for me so it got pretty hard there at some times where it just yeah it's uh things days it hurt and and days it just didn't feel right and um but yeah at the end of it i just guess kept picturing of getting back on that bike and racing again and for me it's that's the only thing i know the only thing i really enjoy pretty much what i look forward to each weekend is being able to go out and go and race my dirt bike and then during the week just going out and have riding and doing the training and bit of fun so it definitely hasn't scared me don't think it slowed me down so it's just yeah as soon as i throw that helmet on i know what i'm in for and it's um and for me i just want to go flat out and go fast ah toby's amazing fast in the desert especially hada like he's unbelievably fast in these conditions i can see with him he's if anything he's probably just getting as fit as what he ever was and as smart as what he ever was on the bike and he'll be fine and the same same with me it's just i don't know people are quick to write you off when you do have a big injury but you don't forget how to ride a motorbike and if you put in the hard work and that and your body still bends and twists and does what it needs to you make do and get back to where you were two injuries like that are pretty something pretty serious even just anyone getting back on a dirt bike after something like that is a massive big thing that's for me and grabber that was pretty much that was close to to life not life-ending but it was like yeah for good and like it's um now i pretty much just joke around about it and everyone that asks me about it like oh how's your neck i'm like yeah it's good like i'm i'm sweet my head's screwed on literally um it's a funny way to look at it to laugh it off but you kind of got to if you get back on that bike and you sit there and you're worried about it you may as well get off the thing because it's if you're sitting there and you're thinking about it and you're worried and you can't laugh it off and joke about it then you're always going to be worried of getting back on and doing what you're meant to be doing doing those speeds ahead we're doing out there like the last couple of days it's uh best it's the best feeling in the world i'm stoked i'm stoked and going back that fast again i i can't believe i'm actually riding with the two best guys in the country especially with off-road and desert racing so i have a look at them two years ago they they both had really serious injuries and and they've come back swinging like that they're really smooth they're looking real tidy i mean toby even just riding with him today you can tell straight away that he's really strong and he's fit and health and he's ready to go it's i mean toby's super fast he's got natural talent behind him um i mean i'm only 24 years old so those guys are definitely older i mean ben's 32 and he's he's still gone real strong so it's i've got high hopes um is i don't want to talk myself up too much but i mean i'll do anything possible it's my life is racing the move to to a factory team it's been worrying for me but the way ben's gone about it has just been really really easy he's a team manager and he sure has taken that role on really well so he's setting everything up uh as seriously as i am at still racing it's good it's kind of a bit of a distraction where i make sure the boys are writing that and then i can go out and do anything on the bike and i'm having a lot of fun doing both at the moment with ivan sort of young kid on the bike doesn't mind holding it on i think will definitely push each other along to a new level or one of the best things that's ever helped me in the desert is toby is the same we're not worried about who we're racing or what's going on it's just about how fast we can actually go on these tracks and i think the ktm 500 evolved into a really good desert bike like normally in the past we've actually rode the motor crosses but the exc's that well suited even stock standard as a desert bike that we don't need to do like obviously we're doing small things to make them a bit faster in that but that's just because we're pushing the limits mean toby and ivan we want to go as fast as possible and can be as far in front of what we can be so it's it's the bike to be on at the moment like all the testing we've done over the years now these bikes are proving to be better and faster in every kind of way and it's just i don't know it gives us some good motivation heading into the year i'm feeling good on the bike and seeing gravo blast by it's um i think we're both back to where we need to be still got a few more months to build on a few things and and work on things so we can only can only progress from here and and get better you

Channel: ARiemann1

Views: 500,283

Rating: 4.8936558 out of 5

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Id: ZiXHe5Qv6rQ

Length: 18min 56sec (1136 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 27 2014