KTM, market leader in the manufacture of offroad motorcycles endorses and welcomes the five year

contract signed by promoters Youthstream to hold the FIM Motocross World Championship Grand Prix in the USA starting this season at Glen Helen Raceway in California (May 29-30).

“We consider this is a very positive move and one that we completely support,” said KTM Sportmotorcycle’s CEO Stefan Pierer. “This is a great opportunity for us to show the quality of our factory team and our racing bikes in the USA, which is a very important and growing market for us,” he added. “We go to the US with our world champions and our world championship bikes, including our new KTM 350 SX-F that MX1 World Champion Tony Cairoli has chosen to defend his title.”

The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team will go to the USA with two world champions and two vice world champions among the six riders. Tony Cairoli, Max Nagl and Rui Goncalves will compete in MX1 and Marvin Musquin, Shaun Simpson and Jeffrey Herlings will ride in MX2. They will be joined at Glen Helen Raceway by two more KTM family members – Britain’s Tommy Searle and American Mike Alessi – who both compete in the AMA competition. Tommy moved to the USA at the beginning of 2009 to race for KTM USA in the AMA MX Lite series after finishing a close second in the MX2 World Championship. Mike is already familiar with his European rivals and has competed in a number of pre-season events on this side of the Atlantic.

Pit Beirer, KTM’s Offroad Director and Stefan Everts, Team Boss of the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team also both enthusiastically endorse the announcement that the World championship series is heading for the USA.

The Glen Helen Raceway, a top class racing facility some 96 km from Los Angeles, has already hosted major national and international offroad events and is a worthy setting for the launch of the US series