VOL. 52 ISSUE 7 FEBRUARY 18, 2015 P83
a very important market. So we wish him all the
best and we are very thankful to have had him
racing for KTM. This year he's trying to take two
steps forward in one big stride by going straight
to MotoGP. He's a big guy physically, so maybe it
could work. Good luck to him.
So maybe you'll have him back again in
three or four years' time when KTM comes to
MotoGP?
Why not? All these big guys started out on
KTMs, even Marc Marquez or Casey Stoner.
Look, outside my office maybe you saw the mo-
torcycle Casey took his first GP win on in Malay-
sia, so let's see.
So far we've spent a very interesting 45
minutes talking, but without mentioning off-
road once. Does this perhaps reflect the fact
that KTM is making a change in direction?
No, no, no! Maybe from the outside it looks like
everything is heading towards on-road due to the
huge success we're having with our sales, but in
off-road we are still the market leader and still the
benchmark. So in the upcoming 2016 model sea-
son, you will see a totally new Motocross range
which is state of the art with everything new—new
engines, new chassis, new everything, and this
will be the new benchmark for my Japanese col-
leagues. The new KTM will be the most light-
weight Motocross bike in each capacity class,
even though each one comes with electric start
included. Maybe even the Japanese teams real-
ize this is helping us to be repeated World Cham-
pions, because in Motocross you can crash, but
then if you get up and push the red button you're
And on the off-road side of things, Tony Cairoli leads the way for KTM.
