"I’m so pleased to have won Romaniacs."
KTM’s Jonny Walker has claimed a second consecutive international Hard Enduro victory in 2014 following a winning performance at 'Red Bull Romaniacs'. Making his third appearance at the Sibiu based event, Walker delivered five impressive performances en route to becoming the youngest ever 'Romaniacs' winner.
Experiencing the highs and lows of 'Romaniacs' during his first two outings in 2012 and 2013, for 2014 Walker was confident of success. Going head-to-head with Romaniacs’ most successful ever rider Graham Jarvis, Jonny opted to make a calculated start to this year’s event. Instead of gunning for the win in the City Prologue he instead settled for a third place result. During the four full days of competition Walker secured two important victories – on days one and three – as well as claiming two runner-up finishes on days two and four, despite drowning his bike on day two. 
Graham Jarvis (l), Jonny Walker (m) & Wade Young (r)
Starting the fourth and final day as race leader Jonny did exactly what he needed to do and remained ahead of Graham Jarvis. After more than 20 hours of racing Jonny secured his first Red Bull Romaniacs victory. Jonny Walker: "I’m so pleased to have won Romaniacs." After winning at Erzberg I really wanted to keep things going well, and I knew that beating Graham here wasn’t going to be easy. But that’s what I focused on and worked hard to do. And it’s happened, I’m so, so happy."
“Romaniacs is a race you have to learn, and the last two years were all about learning really. I had some good days but also some bad days, but more than anything I worked out what the race is about and what you need to do to be properly prepared for it."
“I didn't push too hard on the prologue simply because I didn't want to make any mistakes that might mess things up. The first full day went really well, and was a great start to the event. I wanted to try and push hard again on day two, but I ended up drowning my bike, which wasn’t ideal. I just dropped into a part of a small river that was a lot deeper than I was expecting. I had to pump the water out of my motor, which cost me some time, but I still managed to get a good result at the end of what was a bit of a bad day."
“I don't know why but I just wasn’t riding well during day three. I caught Graham but I just didn't feel good at all. On the last day I knew that if I rode well I'd be able to pull time on Graham, and I felt good. I was pretty confident that things were going the way I needed them to, although I got lost a few times later on in the day so I did get a little worried a few times."
“To finally get to the finish knowing that the race was won is an amazing feeling. Romaniacs wears you down day-after-day but winning is a great feeling. The race couldn't be more different to Erzberg, and to have won both races this year means a lot. I have to thank Seb my mechanic, all the guys at KTM and all of my sponsors – winning races like Romaniacs is a real team effort.”
Graham Jarvis’ three-year reign at the Red Bull Romaniacs ends with hard fought runner-up result: “Unfortunately, it’s my first Red Bull Romaniacs defeat in four years but overall I’ve got to be happy with the runner-up result. Jonny rode a great race and hardly put a foot wrong all week. I was hoping to try and gain some time back on him on Day Four but it wasn’t possible. The early part of the day was quite fast and he managed to pull a gap on me. In the end I was just happy to ride home for second. It’s been a different race this year – not as hard as it’s been in the past. It’s been good though. I’ve really enjoyed it, but I just didn’t have the pace of Jonny in all the fast stuff. Of course I wanted to win but I’ll come back stronger next year and try to win it back.” (source: future 7 media & husqvarna)
Red Bull Romaniacs 2014 – Overall Gold class: 1. Jonny Walker (KTM): 2. Graham Jarvis (Husqvarna); 3. Wade Young (KTM); 4. Paul Bolton (KTM); 5. Andreas Lettenbichler (KTM)