KTM Motocross Racing’s Kirk Gibbs was unable to defend his 2015 Manjimup 15,000 title against a charging Todd Waters in the challenging sands of Western Australia.

After winning the first two of four All-Star motos and the Eliminator event, Gibbs was on track to a successful title defence before Todd Waters of the Wilson Coolair Motul Suzuki team began to gain the upper hand in the final two motos.

Waters claimed the moto three win before a fall and a flat rear tyre in the final moto saw the fellow Queensland-based rider walk away with the overall victory.

“It’s always awesome to go to Manji, I enjoy riding there,” said Gibbs. “The early wins really helped but unfortunately the last two races didn’t go quite to plan and Todd rode really well.

“He beat me fair and square in the third one, and then in the last one I was out front and just had a little tip over. I tried to catch up but a lap later I had a flat tyre and had to nurse it home. It was disappointing but I had a pretty good crack at it.”

Enjoying the clean and fair racing on the day, Gibbs remains positive following the loss to his good friend Waters.

“Toddy and I are still really good mates and we race clean,” he added. “We both accept that the better man wins on the day and we’ve just got to cop it on the chin and take it like a man.”

KTM teammate and MX2 championship contender, Caleb Ward, diced with teammate Jesse Dobson all day long before finishing fifth overall aboard his KTM 350 SX-F, just a single point behind premier class regular Dobson.