We chatted with Toby Price prior to the start of his 2022 Dakar campaign

Toby Price is one of the most laid-back, down-to-earth blokes you could ever meet. No matter where the two-time Dakar winner is racing, and whether he’s competing on two wheels or on four, he always finds time for his fans, signing autographs, posing for selfies and having a laugh.

Toby’s positive attitude and never-say-die attitude has won him fans the world over, no matter whether they’re into motocross, enduro, Rally Raid, Stadium Super Trucks, Trophy Trucks or UTVs. The bloke is a machine, obsessed by speed and by racing in just about any format.

Toby was already a legend in the Aussie dirt-bike scene well before his first Dakar win in 2016 made him famous with a wider audience. Before he competed in Dakar, he had already won the Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) five times, the Hattah Desert Race five times, and the Finke Desert Race four times. He was also a two-time winner of the Australian 4 Day Enduro (A4DE), and he had represented Australia in the International Six Day Enduro (ISDE) squad.

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There’s no denying it’s his Dakar crowns with the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team in 2016 and then again in 2019 that helped make Toby Price a household name. However, as well as his motorcycle exploits, Toby also has an incredible racing record on four wheels: in 2019 he and fellow Dakar competitor Nasser Al-Attiyah came second in the Baja 1000 race in Mexico, and more recently he won the 2021 Finke Desert Race in his Mitsubishi Triton-bodied Trophy Truck. Oh, and he’s also competed in Stadium Super Trucks and various other forms of four-wheeled racing.

Toby is obsessed with racing and in his new autobiography Endurance: The Toby Price Story, he admits: “If one of my mates said he could finish a sandwich faster than me, it would become a competition. To this day if the word ‘race’ comes up, it flicks a switch in my brain.”

Of course, the road to racing glory is not without its perils, and Toby has suffered multiple injuries along the way that nearly ended his career prematurely, even before his Dakar story had begun … and he has suffered several more since, the most recent of which occurred in closing stages of the 2021 Dakar, in which he broke his collarbone, shoulder and hand.

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Back in Australia after the 2021 Dakar crash, Toby found himself in hospital, quarantining for two weeks, before he could be operated on, and he used this time to work on his autobiography.

“Once I got injured in Dakar (last year), spending two weeks in a hospital quarantining was going to be quite boring, so I thought it might just be a good time to jump on it and kickstart it; and Penguin (Random House Australia) was in step, wanting to do something, and we just took the chance,” Toby explains.

In the beginning

For any fan of motor racing, Toby’s autobiography is an absolute cracker of a read, and the story starts when he was a kid growing up in Roto, near the western NSW town of Hillston.

“It was definitely not an easy childhood, where we grew up, where we lived, but Roto was the stomping ground for where it all kicked off for us,” Toby tells 4X4 Australia. “It was an interesting life to live, and it was definitely a difficult one, but we got to ride motorcycles any day of the week we wanted to and for as long as we wanted, and we didn’t annoy anybody, so that was the best part of it all.”

Toby wasn’t the first Price to catch the racing bug; when he was just a toddler, his dad John and his uncle Jeff had turned an old truck in to an off-road racer to compete in the Australian Off-Road Championship, and they won a national title in 1989. But Toby’s own racing career started when he was just four years old, winning his first race on a PeeWee 50 at a meeting in Condobolin. In his autobiography, he recounts, “I went out there and blew the lot of them to the weeds in my first race.”

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Next up was a state meeting in Albury-Wodonga a few weeks later in which Toby lapped the field. This early racing success would have a big impact on Toby and his family, with parents John and Pauline throwing their full support behind him.

“My parents worked extremely hard to give me all the best that they could,” Toby says. “When you are a little kid, you look at other families that are in a better position and more well-off, their set-up is a lot better and things like that, but we never let that get in the way, and dad always taught me the right way of things, and mum was always full-support, and working flat-out to try and help get me get to events.

“We made it work … sleeping in swags, and we had an old van to start with, then we moved to an old motor coach … it was a decent set-up, but it was nowhere near as flash as the guys coming from the city.”

Having to ‘make do’ no doubt set Toby in good stead for the racing challenges he would face later in his career, including his now famous makeshift tyre repair in the 2021 Dakar, in which he used duct tape and cable ties to repair a damaged rear tyre before finishing second on a 709km stage.

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“Living on the farm, we had to make do with what we had out there,” Toby says. “We couldn’t just go 10 minutes down to a store and buy the parts we needed to fix things, so we were always just trying to MacGyver things up and make the equipment work.

“I’ve always had to work for it, my parents have had to work for it, and it’s made a pretty good story out of it. At the end of the day, the chances of actually making it to full-time racing, the percentage rate, is really low, so to have that dream come true, yeah, it’s definitely worked out in our favour a little bit; it was a lot of hard work along the way.”

As well as bikes, Toby got experience driving cars on the property at Roto as a youngster. In fact, when he was six years old, he used to drive an old Datsun 17km to the bus stop each morning to go to school; his old man had extensions welded on to the pedals so he could reach them!

Bike racing would take up much of Toby’s time before racing professionally on four wheels. As a junior, Toby won state titles in 1998, and from 2000 to 2003, and in 2003 he also won national titles in both the 125cc and 250F classes.

Moving up to senior motocross in 2004 with a factory Kawasaki deal, Toby placed big expectations on himself, but injuries meant he was never fully fit between 2004 and 2007. He was dropped from the Kawasaki factory motocross squad in 2008, but he still ran as a privateer.

A phone call

By this stage, though, he was beginning to think his racing career might be over … then in 2009 he got an offer to race Enduro with Kawasaki in the Australian Off-road Racing Championship (AORC).
“Honestly, that phone call in ’09, I don’t even know what I would be doing right now if I didn’t pick that phone back up and accept the ride to go in to Enduro racing,” Toby says.

Toby’s first year in the AORC was a ripper, winning the title in the last round over four-time World Enduro Champion Stefan Merriman, who had returned to AORC that year.

If 2009 was an eye opener, 2010 was quite simply a revelation. Toby signed for KTM and won just about everything on offer, including the AORC title once again and, on his first attempt, both the Finke and Hattah desert races. Toby admits those first Finke and Hattah desert race wins might not have come at all had it not been for the help of teammate Ben Grabham, who up until that point was Australia’s undisputed Desert King.

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“Luckily I had Ben Grabham in my corner, and he definitely showed me the ropes quite quickly,” Toby says. “We had a good tussle and a good duel between myself and Grabbo, and we were able to have some fun with it … I love being at high speed, living on the farm and out middle of Australia in Roto, basically that’s all I had to do, just go full gas to get to the other side of the paddock, so it was really nothing new, but it definitely paved the way to where we are to this day.”

In 2011, Toby won rounds 2, 3 and 4 of the AORC, Hattah and the A4DE, and was selected to compete in the Australian International Six Day Enduro (ISDE) team. In 2012, he won the AORC, Finke, Hattah and the E3 class of the A4DE. While 2013 started well with wins in rounds 2, 3 and 4 of the AORC, a big crash in the Californian AMA Hare and Hound National Championship saw Toby break three bones in his neck, and his thumb. After big dramas in a US hospital, and problems with his insurance company, Toby’s family flew him back to Australia where he underwent a major operation to repair his neck. He was lucky enough to walk again, let alone race a bike or a Trophy Truck.

“All the injuries I’ve been through, the body, I've given it a fair old whack and used my body up and all my lifelines” Toby admits. “But at the end of the day, it’s all been worth it, and the hard work and sacrifice have all paid off, but yeah, I’ve come very, very close to not living at a normal life and staying on two feet, but I guess it’s just made for one part of the story that anything is achievable if you put your heart and soul in to it, and have a dig, so it’s worked out well.”

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As well as his 2021 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing commitments in Rally Raid and the Dakar and his Trophy Truck win in the Finke Desert Race, Toby also found time to compete in the Baja 1000 again, although he didn’t experience the success of 2019.

“Unfortunately, Baja didn’t go to plan this year for us, but it was cool to go over there and race,” Toby explains. “We handed the truck off in the lead, I did my job, the perfect part that I needed to do, and unfortunately the next driver made an error … and we all do it, so you can’t bury him for it and be upset, but it ended up down in a ditch, in a gully, and the guys tried to help winch it out and one of the straps broke and the truck rolled in to the hills.”

Another Baja goal

Toby is still keen to add a Baja 1000 title to his collection, and he hopes to head back there this year. “Hopefully one day, fingers crossed, we can add a Baja 1000 to our tally as well,” he says. “In 2019, me and Nasser (Al-Attiyah) had an all-wheel drive Mason that’s probably 1100hp, and we actually finished second overall that year, and shocked a lot of people, and it was cool to get a trophy out of the Baja 1000, but I guess when you’re one step short of that top one, yeah, you want to go back and get the top one.”

As well as Baja, Toby also has unfinished business at Finke. He might be a multiple winner on two wheels, and now he has also won on four wheels, but he is still committed to winning the ‘Iron Man’ Finke double – winning in the bike and car categories in the same year. It’s going to be a busy 2022 …

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“Basically, we’ve got five rounds of the (Rally Raid) world championship we need to do on two wheels, so they’re the goals to try and go for next, and then try and get a world championship back, hopefully Dakar goes well in January; but then, other than that, Finke is always on my list, to try and run the four wheels out there … and run the two wheels out there as well, do the Iron Man, and then I want to do the Baja 1000 again, I want to do the UTV World Championships in America, the Mint 400 America and maybe King of the Hammers or something like that.

“A couple of those events would be cool if we can match them all in, but yeah, the main priority, the main goal, is make sure we do the world championship and Dakar.”

The future

Last year, Toby signed a two-year extension to his contract with the KTM factory, but there’s no doubt he’s keen to follow in the footsteps of desert racers like Stephane Peterhansel, Cyril Despres and Nani Roma who have made the transition from two wheels to four wheels in the Dakar … if the opportunity presents itself.

“I’m not gonna deny it, that it is definitely the goal in the future and, like I said, I just love racing, I love being competitive, and I think that’s definitely the next step for me,” Toby admits.

“I’m only getting older and it doesn’t get any easier each year that you compete and race on two wheels … but yeah, watching Stephane Peterhansel and Nani Roma and guys like that, they’ve done an exceptional job of switching over to cars and off of two wheels, and I’m just trying to get a little bit of a jumpstart on it early.”

A jumpstart is an understatement; some of the biggest names in Rally Raid have already been asking Toby what it’s like to compete in events like the Baja 1000.

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“When I first spoke to Nasser about going to race the Baja (in 2019), it’s been one of the races on his list for many years, one he’s dreamed of wanting to do, and previously I’d run the event twice before that, so to do an event before basically Nasser and Carlos Sainz and all them guys that dream and want to do that event was something quite special,” Toby says.

“Having Sebastian Loeb and all them guys approach you about Baja racing, and wanting to know how it all functions, how it all works, it’s a bit of a shock to the system really. Those guys are well-known all around the world on four wheels, world champions and stuff, and it’s cool to have them come and ask me some questions about an event they haven’t done before, so it’s pretty rad.”

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Of course, making the transition to Rally Raid on four wheels is by no means a given. “Unfortunately, in that four-wheel category, if you don’t show up without a half-million euro it’s definitely quite difficult and hard to get a seat in one of those cars, but hopefully with some connections like with Nasser, racing with him, maybe he might get to put in a word somewhere for us … and then with Red Bull’s connection, hopefully something can come from there.

“It’s just something I’m trying to set up for in the future, and if it works I’m gonna be stoked, and if it doesn’t then at least I’m going to hang my helmet up and put it on the shelf and know I gave it everything I could to succeed on two wheels, and try and make a transition to four wheels and know I didn’t leave nothing on the table.”

If you want to learn more about Toby Price, make sure you grab a copy of his autobiography Endurance: The Toby Price Story.

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The ARB connection

ARB 4X4 Accessories is another long-time Toby Price supporter, and this relationship came about thanks to ARB director Andy Brown’s love of off-road racing, and his son Danny’s involvement in the sport.

“Andy and Danny Brown, I’ve known Danny Brown pretty much for 11, 12 or 13 years,” Toby explains. “I’d seen him at some events, and I got to know him a lot more once we started doing the Finke Desert Race in 2010, and that partnership with them just kicked off.

“I love to try and keep myself affiliated with Australian brands and Australian-made companies and ARB is just one of them. I went through the whole workshop facility down there (in Victoria) and watching them fold and bend up bullbars, it’s an amazing set-up for what they do here in Australia, and to have a company like ARB on my side is pretty cool.

“Andy and Danny are a bit wild and love off-road racing and going full gas just as much as me, so it worked out good.”

Toby's Triton

It’s no secret Toby Price has a close relationship with Mitsubishi Australia, which even launched a limited-edition Toby Price Triton a few years ago, so we asked Toby what it was like to see his initials and racing number plastered all over the back of a ute.

“It’s actually quite strange,” he laughs. “To be known as a motorcycle rider and never had a replica two-wheel dirt-bike series put out after me, to have a car come out, it’s pretty cool and exciting.

“Where I used to live in the Hunter Valley, a local dealer there, they used to help out and look after us – Lancaster Motor Group – they put me in touch with Mitsubishi … and they threw that offer, and that idea of making 500 TP Edition Tritons. I’ve had probably four of them now and everyone knows what my life is like, I usually beat the hell out of everything … it’s a super strong, reliable car and great people to be a part of, and I’m super stoked to have them in my corner.”