Features 1 Nov 2016

Catching Up: Toby Price

Dakar champion on his upcoming Red Bull documentary to be released.

Red Bull KTM’s Toby Price has become a household name in Australia since his incredible feat of winning the notorious Dakar Rally in January, but it’s been a long road to that moment of his career. In a brand new documentary – Paying the Price – to be released by Red Bull TV this December, fans will witness the life of 29-year-old Price like they never have before. MotoOnline.com.au spoke to him about what we can expect upon its official release.

Source: Supplied.

Source: Supplied.

Tell us about the documentary and what it means to you, looking back on your career in such a way…

Red Bull has jumped onboard and we came up with a documentary called Paying the Price. It’s basically a look back on where it all started for me and to see the road it’s taken me on, including the highs and the lows. To watch it myself, it’s a little strange, it’s completely different from a normal interview and race results, I’m telling my story of how it all began. It’s really cool to see the times change and look at where it was, and where it is now, we’re excited and hopefully everyone enjoys what we’ve put together.

It’s a pretty remarkable story, reflecting upon your career, isn’t it?

Yeah, it is. It definitely hasn’t been an easy road and it definitely hasn’t all come to me at once. For myself to sit here and watch the documenrary on it all, I’ve kept my self so busy over the past five to six years, that you forget to look back and see where it has taken you and where the path is leading for you. To see the pictures from when I first started as a kid on 50s and all of the things little I’ve done in my career, it’s just cool to see. Hopefully it’s going to be a good thing that everyone enjoys being able to get to know me behind the scenes away from racing and see what it has taken to get me to where I am now.

From what I’ve seen in the trailer, Paying the Price is about more than just competing. It goes in-depth about your injuries and also some really sad moments as well…

Yeah, it’s not only just about the good things we’ve had in life and race results. There’s definitely been the lows of lows in what I’ve been through, spanning from the injuries to family problems, losing my sister and losing good friends, everything like that. It’s definitely not all a rosie story, when people look at us on the finish line on the podium they just think ‘what a dream job’. So it’s just good to show what it’s been like and the real story of Toby Price and what it has taken to be where we are now. We’re excited for the whole thing to show.

Did any particular part of the documentary stand out for you personally?

The two biggest bits were talking about family, losing my sister and losing Kurt [Caselli]. When I got interviewed about them, for sure it was definitely tough to sit there and talk about those things. But that is part of my story and that’s what we’ve been through, most people wouldn’t know those things. In saying that, it’s a story at the end of it that we were able to win Dakar, so it’s got a good point to the end of it. Hopefully it just shows that if you never give up on things and want something bad enough, you’ll do it for the ones that have been there for you and had your back. Hopefully it just shows that nothing is impossible.

Prior to Dakar, you were firstly an accomplished motocross/supercross racer, then excelled in enduro as well. What’s your favourite discipline to ride of all?

Still to this day I miss my motocross and supercross, I was never able to show my full potential in that area, I was either injured or had some issues going on. But at this point in time I’m really enjoying the things I’m doing racing Dakar and racing rally all around the world. For me, I like doing jumps and going fast, so it definitely is a bit of a missing piece of the puzzle there not accomplishing the things I would have loved to in motocross. At the end of that day though, it has put me to where I am now, and as I keep saying to everybody, I wouldn’t change a thing with it. Even the injuries, the highs and the lows, I’m just pumped to be where I am and to be successful in racing rally.

Source: Supplied.

Source: Supplied.

How has life changed away from the bike since you’ve won what’s mostly regarded as the toughest motorcycle race on the planet?

It’s definitely changed, from being recognised by the fans a lot more and things like that. That’s the best part, I love catching up with the fans and all of the people that follow the journey I’m on and support me in what I do. It has also opened a lot of doors with racing cars and things like that, so that’s exciting that it’s been able to lead to some other doors opening. Hopefully it can keep them open for later on in life so I can keep on racing, I’m always going to have racing in my blood and I’ll always want to go fast and do something like that more often – hopefully with age comes a cage!

You travel to all types of places around the world and also some extremely remote places with your career. Do you enjoy it?

Yeah for sure, I love that part of it. Getting to travel and see different parts of the world is exciting, but when you’re sitting in that plane doing a 23-34 hour flight, it can get old pretty quickly. But you’ve just got to keep your mind active and look forward to the week or month that you’re away and just get excited for it that way. Sometimes the planes to get a little old, but other than that, I’m enjoying what I’m doing and I love keeping my diary full of activities and fun things to do.

And just the wrap this up, Dakar 2017 is right around the corner now, so how are preparations going for that and when do they really begin to hit top-gear?

Dakar is coming around really quick, it only feels like a few months ago that I actually crossed the finish line. Preparations kicked off around June, July and August, so it starts really early, but we’ve got a few more trips we need to do leading up to the event. We’ve got some other stuff happening, but it’s full concentration on Dakar now, it’s exciting and we’re looking forward to going back and seeing if we can back it up with another win. It’s exciting times and hopefully we’ll make it hard for everybody else to be as close as possible to me.

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