Celebrating its fiftieth anniversary by staging the event here in NZ, October 25- 27 in Taranaki will be your chance to see the best that Australia has go toe-to-toe with the cream of the Kiwi crop. With the event covering classes from junior to expert, it will come down to the top two in each grade from each country in a point-scoring head-to-head Trans- Tasman affair. The Oceania Challenge part of proceedings, run within the championship itself, means that points scored by any class count the same, exposing the lower grades and younger riders to international competition and be part of a team aiming for bragging rights over the Ozzies, no pressure …
CIAO KEVIN
Red Bull KTM Factory racer Kevin Benavides, a two-time Dakar winner, has retired from professional racing. Carrying the effect of past injuries, he made the tough call to bring down the curtain on a stunning career. The body just wasn’ t recovering to the level required to compete at that level, so rather than race at a lower standard and suffer, despite the love of the sport undiminished within him, he has called it. KTM and all of his sponsors, while supporting his decision to forge on with the next chapter, know that he will leave a gap and were quick to state their admiration for not just his talent but his attitude to racing and his commitment to the team.