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Contributor: Dougy Herbert.
Australian Open Two-Stroke Enduro champion, Brad Williscroft will head the charge of the KTM brigade at this weekend’s Australian Four-Day Enduro Championship at Harvey, Western Australia which starts today, Friday.
Shooting for his fifth consecutive national title, Williscroft, from Helensburgh NSW will lead a four-rider official KTM Australia team, which includes fellow New South Welshman Stuart Bennett, and Victorians Ian Price and Matt Fish.
The event, which begins Friday May 30 and concludes June 31, brings together the best enduro racing exponents from Australia and New Zealand to vye for the sport’s most prestigious Australian crown.
Located two hours south of Perth, the Harvey region will challenge competitors and their machines with three days of timed trails and Special Tests and one of motocross to decide the national champions in the various capacity classes for 2002.
The absence of former and current world enduro champions Shane Watts and Stefan Merriman – who between them have mercilessly plundered the top prize at the 4-day for the better part of 10 years – leaves room for a new outright 4-day champion in 2002.
Williscroft has the rare distinction of having won a national title at each of the four, four-days he’s contested, and says there are perhaps five riders who could walk away with the outright crown in ’02, himself included.
“We’ve walked every special test a couple of times over the last couple of days to get them into the memory,” said the 33-year-old, “and I think the KTM300EXC will be a very competitive bike over the four days.
“There’s only really two in the bush and the rest grass track, so that should suit me because the 300 goes really well on grass. I’m feeling fairly confident of finishing top three outright, although number one would be nice.”
Bennett is another enduro title winner who will be backing up for more, the 1999 200cc enduro champ and former Australian 125cc supercross champion is competing in the Open 4-stroke class aboard a KTM520EXC .
Bennett has a win, two seconds and a third from his last four, four-day appearances, but admits he’ll have his work cut out for him against the New Zealander who won the 250cc two-stroke title last year.
“The Open four-stroke class has been won by Husqvarna for the last few years,” says Bennett, “and they’ve put Kiwi Paul Whibley on a 570 to try to defend it.
“They want it bad, but so do I, so it’ll be interesting,” says 32-year-old Bennett.
Victorians Price (KTM200EXC) and Fish (250EXC) have both registered podium finishes in the Victorian Sprint and Cross Country series in recent weeks, and ensure the KTM Australia team takes plenty of firepower into the event.
KTM is also represented in the Kiwi Team by Mark Pollard who is riding a KTM 200EXC.
