KTM RC Cup Announced for Aspiring Road Racers
Cycle News Staff | November 13, 2014
Photography Courtesy MotoAmerica
Aspiring young road racers will have a new showcase series to compete in this coming season. MotoAmerica and KTM North America have jointly announced that the KTM RC Cup, a spec-class designed to serve as an entry point into professional road racing, will race in selected rounds of the 2015 MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Motorcycle Road Racing Championship.
The KTM RC Cup will see racers aged 14 to 22 battling on KTM RC 390 Cup bikes for KTM contingency money and a shot at an AMA National Championship.
“One of our main goals in creating MotoAmerica was to find new talent and this is the start of that,” three-time 500cc World Champion Wayne Rainey said of the KTM RC Cup. “This is going to give a lot of young riders the opportunity to feel the excitement of racing at a professional event on top-level KTM RC 390 motorcycles while competing for a National Championship. The KTM RC Cup is also going to give the teams a chance to see new talent in a competitive environment. Our goal is to give these riders the opportunity to move up through our championship classes in MotoAmerica with a goal of making it to the World Championships.”
The AMA is currently developing licensing requirements for the new series.
KTM will partner with HMC Racing (the Wisconsin-based team that runs KTM’s Superbike effort) at each of the events to provide a pit area with customer hospitality as well as technical and parts support for all RC Cup participants. The RC Cup racers will also get advice and tips from professional racers such as KTM factory star Chris Fillmore.
The engines of the KTM RC 390 Cup bikes will be sealed to maintain equality. Engine teardowns at the races, rebuilds between races, and ECU checks will be performed by HMC technicians. The RC 390 Cup bikes will be sold to dealers and consumers as ready-to-race motorcycles and production RC 390s will not be eligible for the series.
This is not the first time KTM has gotten involved helping young racers. The company has long sponsored the KTM Jr. Supercross Challenge held at Monster Energy Supercross events. It’s also been involved supplying motorcycles to the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup since its inception in 2007.
