BY ALAN CATHCART
PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRANCESC MONTERO
M
ost people support the
little guy, and while over-
taking BMW in 2012 to
become Europe's number-one
brand (selling 107,142 motorcy-
cles - over 32 percent better than
the year before) means KTM isn't
exactly second division. But it still
makes only a fraction of Honda's
annual two-wheeled production,
even after you add in the 3.76
million machines manufactured
by its Indian partner (and 47.18
percent shareholder), Bajaj Auto.
So KTM's affront in defeating
Honda to win its first-ever road
racing World Championship in
2012 courtesy of German rider
Sandro Cortese stirred the sens-
es of fans around the world, es-
pecially as its engineers started
so late in trying to pose a serious
challenge to the might of Honda
in the new category. For the fact
that Honda's NSF250R Moto3
contender was unveiled in public
in June of 2011 reflected the fact
that it had been working on it for
some time in the full expectation
it'd be adopted as the control bike
for a spec World Championship,
only to find the FIM insistent on
throwing the new category open
to all-comers.
So it caused widespread sat-
isfaction that Honda appeared to
get seriously outmaneuvered by
KTM not only in Moto3's kickoff
year, but for a second succes-
sive season in 2013, with Maver-
ick Viñales retaining the title on
VOL. 51 ISSUE 11 MARCH 18, 2014 P119
The KTM RC250R Moto3 racer.
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There's been two Moto3
World Championships so
far and KTM has
won both of them
