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Price and KTM scaled the greatest of heights in offroad competition, winning the Dakar Rally together in both 2016 and 2019, as well as a Cross-Country World Championship title in 2018.
As it turns out, though, Dakar 2024 was their last together.
“Everyone has been asking me about what events I’ll be riding in this year, but in some personal news, KTM has decided to not renew my contract so Dakar 2024 was my last event with them…” wrote the 36-year-old Australian on Instagram.
“I do feel like I’m still in my prime and going out there fighting for wins, especially at Dakar so it’s unfortunate to not have that opportunity to do it in 2025 but I’m really appreciative of the support they gave me in my career.
“We’ve been able to do some great things together like win two Dakars and get a couple podiums, a World Championship and our success in Australia too.
“A big thank you also to @redbull, @blundstoneworkau, @canamoffroad, @arb4x4 and @bfgoodrichtires who have been riding along with me on the bike, really looking forward to the future.
“For now my focus is on the 2024 SCORE International Championship with Team Australia and to see what comes next.”
KTM’s decision comes at a time when Price has been increasingly focused on four-wheel competition, as he noted in the final line of his post.
It also follows the contract announcement in October 2023 which referred only to the 2024 Dakar Rally, whereas a two-year deal had been proclaimed in June 2021.
For both parties, the full ramifications remain to be seen.
Price could try and find another seat, although the ranks of Honda, which won Dakar 2024 with Ricky Brabec, are already bulging.
As for the other marques, few outside of the KTM group could offer a prime chance of winning the event again, notwithstanding Ross Branch’s feat in finishing runner-up with Hero this year.
The Australian could alternatively try and follow in the footsteps of Stephane Peterhansel, who has won Dakar six times on a bike and eight times in a car.
Price himself is the only person to have won Australia’s ‘Dakar’, namely the Tatts Finke Desert Race, on both two wheels and four, although he is skipping the 2024 edition due to Score commitments in a Trophy Truck, including this weekend’s San Felipe 250.
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing typically fields three riders (fitness permitting), and has thus freed up a seat by letting Price go.
That could conceivably go to fellow Australian Daniel Sanders, who has spent the past two years at sister team Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing.
While Price was left to lament “a few too many mistakes” after finishing a relatively lowly fifth in Dakar 2024, Andreas Holzl, who is the boss of both the KTM and GasGas teams, stated he had “a lot of respect” for Sanders in finishing eighth after “basically had a year out of racing with different injuries.”
Regardless, the news marks the end of an era which produced one of the great Dakar victories, when it was Price gritting his teeth as he carries a fractured wrist all the way through the 2019 event.
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