|
|
| Coma and Despres,
the biggest names in world rally to continue to ride
for KTM |
| Senior KTM officials Pit Beirer
and Heinz Kinigadner have announced at KTM in
Mattighofen Austria that Marc Coma and Cyril Despres
remain loyal to the world leader in the manufacture of
sports motorcycles and will continue to ride Orange in
the world's most demanding rallies the future. |
|
Despres and Coma, both multiple Dakar winners
and eternal rivals for the top spot in any world class rally
will each have their own individual team structure, chosen by
themselves, including the nomination of a second co-rider, Pit
Beirer, KTM's Head of Motorsport said. Both Beirer and
Kinigadner, the company's special consultant in rally and
offroad sports, said they were delighted that the Coma and
Despres will continue to compete on the pure bred KTM racing
machines.
"By signing Marc and Cyril, KTM again preserves the
company's racing DNA," Beirer told KTM Racing News.
"Heinz and I are clearly very happy to have the two real
rally heroes onboard again." Beirer confirmed that KTM is
in the final stages of preparation of the new 450 Rally bike
for the two champions and work is also well advanced on the
KTM 450 Rally Replica machine, which will be available as part
of KTM's cutting edge offroad range.
Kinigadner joined Beirer in expressing satisfaction at the
signing of the two riders who have completely dominated the
Dakar and other major rally events in recent years. "We
are both extremely happy that Marc and Cyril, as the world's
two most outstanding and competitive rally riders have again
put their trust in KTM," Kinigadner said. "There has
been, and will continue to be a lot of testing to perfect the
new bikes, which have been developed with input from these
guys. They are already happy and confident with the bikes and
we will continue to work hard together to prepare for the
major events."
KTM riders have won every Dakar Rally held since 2001 (the
race was cancelled in 2008) and either Despres or Coma have
topped the podium in the last five rallies. The Dakar,
formerly called the Paris-Dakar was moved in 2009 to South
America after it had to be cancelled in 2008 because of last
minute security threats in Mauritania. It traditionally
launches the international motor sports calendar each year,
starting in Buenos Aires at the beginning of January.
|
|
 |
| Cyril Despres closes the deal to
continue to ride on KTM machines |
|
 |
| Heinz Kinigadner and Pit Beirer hand
the agreement to Marc Coma to continue to ride on KTM |
|
|
