Smarty's Moto Wrap for January 1 , 2013 - Mcnews.com.au

M A T E , T H I S I S ‘ T H E M O T O B I B L E ’ !
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“Dakar had always been the plan but when I found Skippy at Condo I thought that was over,” says Grabham,
“however, because Jeff (Leisk – KTM General Manager) is always part of our racing he knows me and how
driven I am and when KTM committed to me early in my recovery it gave me a lot of drive and made me very
positive about getting there.
KTM’s Jeff Leisk supports Grabham’s decision to ride Dakar. “Ben has been great since he came on board with
us in 2009 and broke our Finke desert race drought. More importantly though, he's just amazing to work with,
a real professional who conducts himself well all the time, and is a team player with mentoring new people to
desert racing. He’s just an open book and willingly passes on what he knows.”
“In some ways Dakar is a reward for everything he's done for our brand and for his loyalty and it's an
opportunity he richly deserves. So, for us it's as much a decision from the heart as one of as strategy and
product marketing.”
“After a big break off the bike, the 4-day a month ago was a good gauge for me,” said Grabham. “I was pretty
comfortable and the back didn’t do anything crazy – it was better than I ever thought was possible. Now I’m
pretty much where I was hoping to be before I crashed.
“This is the biggest race in the world and there’ll be a lot of years and experience I’ll have to call on to get
through it. I’m excited, but with 500-600 kilometres a day and a lot of long hours of altitude and heat and cold
ahead it’s going to be a big mission!”
Ben will ride a 2012 KTM 450 Rally which, on the eve of the world’s biggest off-road race, truly epitomises the
KTM mantra, ‘Ready to Race’. “Anyone can order one, it's a turnkey package,” says Leisk. “Ben will give it a
shakedown and fine tune the suspension settings then it will be checked and boxed and sent to South
America.”
- LATEST DAKAR NEWS
- SBS Highlight Package
SBS will have a 30 minute highlight package on every afternoon starting on January the 6 th from 5.30pm – the
show covers and cars and motorcycles so it is brief but well put together – the results are posted on the
official web site after each day – www.dakar.com
- Coma Out – Caselli In
Race favourite Marc Coma will miss the 2013 Dakar Rallye due to injuries sustained earlier in the year and
will be replaced by Yank all-rounder Kurt Casselli.
“We always took the precaution to have a reserve rider properly registered in case of such circumstances and
it will be KTM USA’s Kurt Caselli who will step in to ride Coma’s bike. We want him to ride the Dakar without
any pressure, embrace the adventure and learn from the experience,” Doringer said.
Caselli is at the forefront of the US offroad scene and is the current AMA National Hare and Hound Champion.
He is a multiple national title winner in premium US offroad events, has been a stalwart in the US International
Six Days Enduro (ISDE) Championship and was a member of the KTM team that recently finished second in the
2012 edition of the legendary Baja 1000. Caselli’s start number is yet to be confirmed.