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ADV NewsDakar Champ Toby Price vs MotoGP Star Jack Miller MX Showdown

Dakar Champ Toby Price vs MotoGP Star Jack Miller MX Showdown

Two-wheel racers of different disciplines go head-to-head on the MX track.

Published on 07.20.2020

Watching Red Bull athletes go at it is never boring. Add to the mix that it’s two-time Dakar champion Toby Price racing against MotoGP star Jack Miller on a small-town MX track and you might also expect it to be hilarious. 

The recent clip from Red Bull Motorsports doesn’t disappoint. 

Both Aussies are national heroes, and though they prevail in two very different two-wheeled disciplines, both cut their racing teeth on motocross bikes. 


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Toby, who most famously won the Dakar for KTM in 2016 and 2018, and Jack, a GP-circuit star currently riding a  Ducati for Pramac Racing, met up at the local MX track in Queensland’s Rockhampton for a five lap race aboard a couple of KTM 450 SX-Fs. 

The banter before they mount the bikes lets you know these two are already friends. Toby, who showed up sporting his now-signature mullet, an unsightly hairdo that dates back to a dare posed by his KTM teammate Sam Sunderland, suggests the winner has the loser’s plate number shaved into their hair. 

You’d guess that Toby, a winged-footed god of rally raid riding, would have this race in the bag, but before they rip from the gate, Jack warns that Toby has bitten off more than he can chew: “He thinks he’s this big, bloody Dakar racer, but we’re not in the Dakar now, mate, we’re here in Rocky.”

Known as the Animal in the world of Dakar, Toby, who competed in last year’s race with a broken wrist, does lead the first lap, but can’t compete with the way Jack dives into corners to make a pass. And when you think about it, those more dangerous moves are standard practice on a road course, but something you’d never do in endurance racing where steadiness trumps aggression.

There are a couple, um, hairy moments, especially when Jack nearly clips a trackside tree, but each near catastrophe is met with fits of laughter. These guys are definitely having a blast. 

Before you know it, Jack is wielding a shaver Toby’s way, having noted before the race that shaving a #43 on Toby’s head would be a nice addition to “that crap haircut he has going on.” Toby, who affectionately calls his rival “Jackass,” goes with it, and weirdly, his stringy mullet does improve with the sides shorn. 

If you follow Toby you know that hairstyling became an integral part of his hilarious persona when he started a youtube series, Bivouac Barber, where he trims up fellow racer’s hair during the Dakar, interviewing them in the style of Jerry Seinfeld’s likewise offbeat, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. It’s pretty funny to watch, especially knowing these guys have just crushed a long day of full-tilt desert racing. 

The Toby Price Vs. Jack Miller video was made while the Red Bull racers were still sidelined during international motorsports’ Covid-related hiatus. But while the rally raid season looks to be postponed for the season, leaving Toby training for the next Dakar, Jack was back in action on Sunday as MotoGP kicked off its abbreviated season at the Jerez Circuit in Southern Spain. 

The Aussie took fourth behind France’s Fabio Quartararo, Spain’s, Maverick Vinales and Italy’s Andrea Dovizioso in an exciting race that saw current World Champion, Marc Marquez, crash hard during the final laps. The latest word is the Spaniard’s arm is broken, ending his 2020 season. 

All of which reminds us how dangerous and grueling professional motorcycle racing can be, and how Toby and Jack, jokily racing on a small-town MX track, have earned every giggle.

Author: Jamie Elvidge

Jamie has been a motorcycle journalist for more than 30 years, testing the entire range of bikes for the major print magazines and specializing in adventure-travel related stories. To date she’s written and supplied photography for articles describing what it’s like to ride in all 50 states and 43 foreign countries, receiving two Lowell Thomas Society of American Travel Writer’s Awards along the way. Her most-challenging adventure yet has been riding in the 2018 GS Trophy in Mongolia as Team AusAmerica’s embedded journalist.

Author: Jamie Elvidge
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