WSX Abu Dhabi GP

2025 Dakar Rally

The 2025 Dakar Rally route is 7,700km of pure adventure

Dakar Rally organizers have come up with a grueling two-week course that will push competitors and their machines to the absolute limit on their latest visit to Saudi Arabia.

By Tim Sturtridge

There is no other challenge in motorsport quite like the Dakar Rally and the route for the 47th edition of the world famous desert race has got it all. Massive sand dunes, a 48-hour Chrono Stage measuring over 1,000km, plus a full fortnight of further twists and turns in Saudi Arabia.

It all starts with a high-speed 29km Prologue Stage in Bisha on January 3. Then, it's straight into the thick of the action with both the 48-hour Chrono Stage and Marathon Stage coming in the first week of the rally. Competitors who make it past these obstacles will get a well-earned rest day in Hail on January 10.

All roads lead to the Empty Quarter desert during the 2025 Dakar Rally's second week. It will be among Saudi Arabia's most formidable sand dunes that this latest edition of the rally will ultimately be won and lost. The checkered flag will fly in Shubaytah on January 17 and anyone reaching the finish line of this Dakar can consider themselves a true champion.

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Webb Ok...Ready to Race

Webb reports ‘just some whiplash’ in AUSX Open scare

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Section: Competition Post: Alex Gobert

Crashes out of race two after winning the opening encounter.

Webb dominated the opening encounter, but the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing rider appeared injured upon crashing out of race two, just moments after Jett Lawrence went down in the same turn.

After exiting Marvel Stadium clutching his left arm/wrist, Webb quickly took to social media afterwards to provide an update on his status. He didn’t return for the remainder of the night.

“Just wanted to give everyone an AUS update,” Webb explained. “Won race one and then had an unfortunate incident with Mossy in race two and went down.

“Fortunately, all good, just some whiplash. Appreciate all the love, and hate that I didn’t get to finish the night out for the Aussie fans.”

A more serious injury could have proven disastrous for this year’s Monster Energy AMA Supercross runner-up, only six weeks out from Anaheim 1’s 2025 season-opener. Hunter Lawrence went on to win the overall, as Joey Savatgy clinched the Australian SX1 title.

KTM – Behind the scenes in Mattighofen

TRAINING With Chase Sexton

Jett Lawrence VS Jorge Prado

Jorge Prado is no stranger to speed, with four world championships to his name, including back-to-back MXGP World Championship titles. To earn that, he’s had to beat the fastest riders in the world, including legends like Jeffrey Herlings and Tim Gajser. However, one rider Jorge hasn’t faced for an entire season is Jett Lawrence. Despite this, Jorge remains confident that he can take on the phenom and become a future Pro Motocross champion.

Pit Stop for the Future: Strengthening KTM

In the early 1990s, Austria-based motorcycle maker KTM was a small-scale motorbike producer turning out just 6,000 machines per year from a small workforce. Prospects for the company were dim against competition from a resurgent BMW and other euro bike makers.

Following a large investment from Indian scooter and vehicle maker Bajaj Auto and a few ownership changes, KTM grew to become one of Europe’s most successful motorbike brands, including fielding a team in MotoGP, the top tier of international motorcycle racing. Until recently, the company was producing nearly 1,000 motorcycles per day and is considered a top maker of ultra-popular “adventure” motorcycles preferred by intrepid riders looking to venture far off the beaten path.

With year after year of successful sales and acquisitions of iconic moto brands like MV Agusta, Husqvarna, Husaberg and Gas Gas, it looked as though KTM was poised for even more success under the guidance of Pierer Mobility CEO and enthusiast Stefan Pierer. But in the last several months, the company seems to have suddenly unraveled.

Sales are down 27% compared to the the first half of 2023, and a controversy over a perceived drop in build quality due to a camshaft gremlin and the general drop in sales across the industry has resulted in layoffs, a sudden production pause and a new co-CEO for Pierer.

According to ADVpulse.com, KTM has now entered into “self-administration,” a European market measure that allows for a 90-day effort to reorganize and secure financing to continue operations before the company falls into insolvency. In a video (below), Pierer and new co-CEO Gottfried Neumiester are calling the restructuring window a “pit stop” on the road to recovery.

KTM North America issued a statement for the North American press saying the legal restructuring procedure primarily affects only KTM AG. According to ADVpulse.com, officials said “North America and all other KTM subsidiaries are not included” in the European action, however if KTM AG fails to find a solution, all KTM sellers would most certainly be affected.

ADVpulse.com says efforts in increase involvement (and investment) with longtime partner Bajaj Auto have not materialized as hoped. KTM has also worked closely with energy drink and extreme sports sponsorship company Red Bull for many years, but the $20-billion beverage company has apparently been unwilling to invest in or buy the company outright. Pierer Mobility AG’s share price has fallen from €89.60 in September 2021 to €9.50 as of the most recent trading day, leaving it with a €345 million market cap and €1.4 billion in debt, with another €136 million set to come due in 2025. The company had posted a €53 million profit in mid-2023.

Meanwhile, along with the precipitous drop in sales, the company has laid off nearly 600 workers in two waves this year. At present, production will pause while the executive team looks for backers, and under the statutes of the reorganization, workers will receive “pre-negotiated partial wages” according to ADVpulse.

Adding to the company’s woes is a controversy around different warranty coverage for different models, a backlash against KTM for building engines in China with partner CFMoto, and reports of a camshaft wear issue with popular 790, 890 and 901 models.

Some in the industry have blamed Pierer/KTM’s response to the covid pandemic, which saw motorcycle makers get a big boost while social distancing was in effect, but increased production reportedly left the company with unsold stock as the pandemic waned and sales slowed. Meanwhile, majority stakes in sub-brands like MV Agusta - which was also owned by Harley-Davidson for a short time - has added to the company’s debt load. Some have called for the company to sell its MV Agusta stake and sell off other sub-brands including recently acquired Gas Gas and Husqvarna.

The company has until the end of February to remedy the situation. If it cannot find new sources of funds or a buyer, the company assets could be sold to satisfy creditors.

Tough Choices at KTM, As Temporary Production Halt Planned

Around 1,000 employees won't need to report to work after the New Year.

To say that things haven't been looking great over at KTM for a minute is a bit of an understatement.

Earlier this week, parent company Pierer Mobility released a short notice about restructuring on its investor relations website that spelled out the need to find a "three-digit million" amount of bridge financing (presumably in Euros, though no currency was specified). Since it mentioned ongoing discussions with major shareholder Pierer Bajaj AG, it's reasonable to think that talks of upping its stake in the company, or even buying it out entirely, could be on the table.

But the Pierer Mobility adhoc announcement of November 12, 2024 also stated, "Against the backdrop of a challenging economic environment, an even more far-reaching operational restructuring is being driven forward with the aim of reducing inventories at both KTM AG and the dealer level to an economically sustainable level by significantly reducing production volumes. Furthermore, overheads are also to be significantly reduced once again." The emphasis here is mine, but words are all Pierer's.

Just two days later, Austrian business publication Oberösterreichische Nachrichten spoke to Stefan Pierer himself, and learned more about what steps the company is taking to "significantly reduc[e] production volumes."

Very specifically, it seems that the company will halt production at the Mattighofen factory for two months, running from January to February of 2025.

This will affect approximately 1,000 employees, in addition to the 300 or so who will be laid off entirely as the company switches from having two shifts on the factory floor to one. While additional layoffs were already discussed as early as August 2024, this is the first time the plans for a temporary production halt have been made public.

Now, if you're like me, you probably immediately wondered how those 1,000 employees who will suddenly be sent home for all of January and February feel about not getting paid for two months. Supposedly, the plan is to continue paying those employees for a 30 hour workweek, which represents a reduction in pay rather than no pay at all. 

Presumably, since no group is a monolith, some might welcome extra time to spend doing things outside of work. But while some pay is better than no pay at all, the overall feeling of uncertainty and shifting sand as related to your employer isn't exactly confidence-inspiring.

As anyone who's ever budgeted anything can tell you, expecting one amount but suddenly experiencing a sharp decrease will throw all your careful planning out the window. Maybe you have money saved, but also, maybe you don't.

Sudden family emergencies can happen at any time, to anyone. And the added stress of not knowing how much you're going to be paid for what's supposed to be your full-time job only compounds the stress, no matter whether you're paid in dollars, pounds, or Euros.

Pierer says these moves are intended to right-size the amount of product the company has on hand, and that they're only part of its "far-reaching restructuring plans" intended to right the good ship Pierer Mobility and turn its fortunes around. But beyond that, it's important not to lose sight of the fact that once again, this upheaval will affect the lives of a whole lot of the company's employees.

What other twists and turns does the company have up its sleeve to get itself back on the right track? Stay tuned for future developments as they arise.

KTM's MotoGP Program On Pause

Not the death knell; at least, not yet.

There's always money in the banana stand, or so I hear.

Well, maybe that's true if you're a member of the Bluth family, but that's not the case for KTM. If you're a member of KTM, just substitute "MotoGP program" for "banana stand" and you'll more or less have what's happening here. Relax; I kid because I care. I love MotoGP.

While KTM and Pit Beirer have been adamant that the MotoGP program will continue unabated for 2025, and that all four of its bikes will line up on the grid to start the season, Motorsport.com also says that it "understands that there are doubts in MotoGP promoter Dorna's headquarters about it."

Whether there's anything substantive behind those doubts remains to be seen, but it's not difficult to understand why they might exist. A company isn't a family, but will function similarly in that if the main unit starts to go down financially, it will generally pool resources from its component parts to try to alleviate the situation and hopefully, to steer the ship to calmer waters.

It's not clear how long this pause will last, nor what impact it will have on the team's competitiveness for the coming season. As we've seen repeatedly in recent time, some racers are able to gel so well with machines that aren't on the cutting edge of current MotoGP development that they're impressively competitive.