HSE Motorex KTM Off-Road Team’s Ben Grabham has kicked off his WA Desert Tri-Series campaign with a win in the series opener at Doorawarra Station.

Held near Carnarvon in Western Australia’s upper Gascoyne Region, riders endured a 10-kilometre Prologue on the Friday followed by 500 kilometres of racing across Saturday and Sunday,

Incorporating everything from wide-open desert expanses to slower, more technical terrain, Grabham proved his KTM 500EXC had the versatility to tackle anything as he took the win ahead of Yamaha’s Rod Faggoter and Jake Wattling.

“It was the perfect weekend for me pretty much, I won the Friday Prologue which meant I had the dust-free run into the first day,” said Grabham.

“I won both legs and it was a good solid weekend of riding with three hours both days and a course of a little over 500 kilometres which was really hard on the bikes and the bodies, with a fair mix of low and high speed stuff.

“The 500 was faultless – everything went well and I felt really good on it all weekend so it was a good test and a next step for everything we’re doing in the coming weeks.”

Grabham feels that the all-new Tri-Series event brought back the grass roots of racing and will be the start of big things to come in the future.

“It was good to be there at the start of a new series; in a lot of ways it’s back to the grass roots of dirt bike racing with everybody camping in the desert around bonfires at night,” he added.

“Apart from the awesome track it’s just a great atmosphere and I think, the start of something pretty big, to be honest.”

Grabhams HSE Motorex KTM Off-Road teammate Matt Fish was forced to withdraw early in the first stage of the event with a mechanical issue.

The all-new three-round series will continue early next month with the Indee 500, held at Indee Station near Port Headland, with the third round of the series taking place at Kumarina Station in WA on 9-11 August.