TRAIL JESTERS KTM SIGN BEN KELLEY
T
rail Jesters announced that
Ben Kelley has signed with
KTM and will return as a mem-
ber of Trail Jesters KTM Racing
Off-Road team for 2018. Kel-
ley will race a factory-prepared
KTM 250 XC-F in the Grand
National Cross Country XC2
250 Pro class and AMA National
Enduro Championship NE1 Pro
class. Kelley will also compete in
select National Extreme Enduros
aboard a KTM 250 XC-W TPI.
"Ben is a versatile off-road
rider and we look forward to
his continued development and
growth as he goes after the top
step of the podium in GNCC,
National Enduro and Extreme
Enduro events in 2018," said
Antti Kallonen, Off-Road Racing
Manager, KTM.
Kelley began the 2017 sea-
son injured and for the first
five months had to ride himself
back into form and still finished
a solid fifth in GNCC XC2 250
Pro class. As a member of the
2017 AMA U.S. ISDE team,
Kelley took home a gold medal,
second place in the C1 Class
Championship and was a mem-
ber of the third place Club Team
at the 92nd running of the "Six
Days" in Brieve, France.
Kelley also just finished third
overall in the opening round of
the 2018 Kenda AMA Enduro
National Championship in Sum-
ter, South Carolina. CN
VOL. 55 ISSUE 5 FEBRUARY 6, 2018 P37
Hafizh Syahrin is on the verge of making history for his
country in MotoGP. His form at the upcoming test in
Thailand will decide his fate.
"As everybody knows, since Jonas Folger
decided that he couldn't race in 2018, we've been
looking for who could be the right replacement
rider," said Tech3 Team Principal, Herve Ponch-
aral. "Following the Sepang test, we had many
meetings and it has been decided that Hafizh
Syahrin would be a very good choice for the Mon-
ster Yamaha Tech3 team. He is young, only 23
years old, has already done some podiums in the
Moto2 class, which is not easy.
"To have a young rider is much more meaning-
ful for the team than having an already established
rider. Let's do the test, I'm already full of excite-
ment and optimism and really soon after Buriram
we will take a final decision." CN
Ben Kelley will get full factory
support on the Trail Jesters
KTM Racing Team.
