The PRICE IS RIGHT

As a two-time Dakar Rally champion, seven-time Finke Desert Race winner, FIM World Rally Champion and one of Australia’s most popular motorsports athletes Toby Price has lived a truly remarkable life filled with ups and downs. A childhood racing prodigy from the tender age of two, Toby ripped through the junior ranks, taking out titles in both dirt track and motocross, and turning pro at 16 joining the formidable KTM Racing team. Soon he was turning heads internationally and tapped to take on the most forbidding enduro courses the sport could throw at him. Who knew that the remote town of Roto (population: 41), in the far-west of NSW, would be the launching pad of one of the greatest motorsports athletes the world has seen, fit to tackle and triumph over the planet’s most gruelling endurance race? But the clock and the elements weren’t his only adversaries.

Widely renowned for his “Bush Mechanic” persona, Toby has overcome many formidable bumps in the road — the death of his adored sister, Min, the tragic loss of mentors and rivals in the desert, countless broken bones and an accident that should have paralysed him for life. His story is a study in staying true to yourself and following your passion to its ultimate end. The person who emerged from the crucible of so many trials is a kid from the country whose need for speed took him to the top of the podium, recipient of an OAM at age 33 and now one of the most beloved figures in Australian sport.

In his latest book, Endurance: The Toby Price Story, the world champ shares his incredible and inspiring journey and in the following edited extract talks about overcoming immense adversity — from a life-threatening neck injury, being screwed by insurance companies and spiralling into depression.

“I’d bent my neck so far forward that it had basically