Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128010
KM T 'sKurt Nicoll I I I ~ (ill) flGJBill aill.iU~ ansUN2J ~lln~ rndrn~ ~ .~~ ll11 Gill=uill!J ~ By An drew Clubb Photo s by Alex Hodgki nson and Andrew Clubb ollowing the worldwide resurgen ce in four-stro ke dirt bikes spa rked by Yamah a's YZ400F, Aus tria n manufacturer KTM wasted littl e time in climbing a boa rd th e thum p er bandwa gon a nd d evel op in g a high-spec fou r-stro ke motocrosser of its own. At th e Austrian round of last yea r's World 500cc Motocross cha mpio nship in May, a high-level meeting of KTM's to p-brass ga ve the four-s tro ke progr am the gr een light , and thu s the 520SX was set to be born , wi th form er longtime GP racer Kur t Nicoll given the job of ma nagin g KTM's bran d new four-s tro ke mo to cross team for the '99 season. A former four- time runner -up in the Wo rld 50bcc Mot ocro s s champions h ip, a nd a seven-time British championship winner, 34-year-old Nicoll had his wo rk cut out in just getting his team to the sta rt line for this year's opening GP in France in April. W hile initia l p ro to typ es of the new fo ur-s troke offered im med iate and obvious s igns of the bik e' s potential. their fragil ity mad e headli nes through the GP pad dock. A nd whil e th e lightweight and p ot ent new 520SX thumper race bik es of -Swede Peter Joh ansson and former world champ Kiw i Shayn e Kin g hav e end u red their share of nigglin g mechan ical glitches this season, they have also d on e their fai r share of winning . The KTM duo have won seven GP motos between them in the nine rounds of the championship to the time of writing, putting Joh ansson se cond and King six th in th e worl d title chase . F Q; .c .ยง go en 36 In tand em wit h the motocross effort, Italian end uro stars Giova nni Sala and Mari o Rinald i recently finished tied in points at the top of the 400cc class in the World End uro cham pionship, mounted aboard 400cc versions of the new KTM thumper - com plete with electric-start. Now, as the 2000 mod el yea r loom s, KTM is gearing up to un leash its new ge nera tio n fou r-strokes to an eager and enthusias tic pu blic keen to sample a taste of Aus trian fou r-stroke thu nd er. Both motocross an d end u ro-s pec KTM thumpers will be rel eased later this yea r, in both 400 and 520cc capacit ies, rem ar kab ly, little mor e than 18 months af ter the KTM four-strok e project gai ned the gree n light, as team KTM boss Kurt N icoll confirmed in this int ervi ew on th e eve o f th e Lu xe mbourg 500 GP on August 8. First up Ku rt, as a successful GP racer yourself, when and wh y d id you mak e th e move to team management? l suffered an elbow injury coming in to the '98 race season, and that basically ended my racing career. So I s ta rted goi ng to the GP s th a t yea r to help Sha yne King , as w e would have be e n te ammates w ere it no t fo r the elbow injury. Midway thro ug h that season the opportunity came up to form a new team wit h KTM and its new fours tro ke for th e '99 season, for w hich I was appointed team manager. Q A Wh Y were you chosen for the tea m manager's job? I hav e very goo d relat ionsh ips with all the people at KTM, having raced for them for so many years, a nd it just seemed quite logical at the time that if we were going to form a new team, wit h a new bike, then I wo uld be the manager. Q A Q A H O W excited were yo u by the though t of working on the new KTM four-stroke project? H on es tly , that was the w hole th in g th at m os t attracted me to the team. The new bike is obviously