Kelan’s delighted to be ‘Grant’ed another year at the top table

KELAN Grant has signed on for a fourth year in the World Enduro Series alongside Elliott Heap and multiple world champion, Sam Hill and the Omagh man is delighted to have earned another opportunity at the top table.

Having endured an up and down 2021, which came on the back of some major shoulder surgery at the end of the previous year, the former Irish champion is hopeful he can rediscover his top form and achieve regular top 10 finishes in 2022 for his newly rebranded team, Nukeproof Sram Factory Racing, who will have several satellite riders competing at various rounds alongside the main trio.

“The team has had a facelift, so it’s a nice change,” he beamed.

“This is the fourth year for me and I’m loving it, living the dream! I’m really happy. I didn’t want to change or move teams so it worked out really well that I got another year out of it. I’m stoked. Last year I was still getting over the shoulder injury, which definitely held me back at the start of the season but as things ramped up it got a wee bit better. I finished about 15th at the end of the season, which I was happy with so I’m hopping to start where we finished last year.

“This year I’m going to try to stay consistently in the top 20 and try to scrape a few top 10s too but it’s really tough racing at the pointy end but I’d be really happy with consistent top 20s and the odd top 10.”

With the start of the new schedule delayed after the opening rounds in Australia and New Zealand were cancelled due to those countries Covid restrictions, Grant’s new campaign will get underway in Scotland in June for the start of an eight week series of races in Europe before crossing the Atlantic to America and Canada in August. The WES then returns to Europe for several rounds to round off the season.

Ahead of the new season, Grant and his team spent some time in California at the Sea Otter Festival to increase Nukeproof’s profile in America and to get some miles under their belts.