KTM North America, which holds a seat on the board of directors of both the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) and AMA, is making to increase its road racing activity with AMA Pro Racing in 2009. “KTM is a member of both, but from a racing perspective we’ve been and will continue to be very focused on the AMA Pro Racing brand, and not just in road racing,” said Jon-Erik Burleson, President of KTM North America. “AMA Pro Racing going to DMG, we feel strongly that it is a great step for road racing. We, as an industry, have seen a lot of places where AMA Pro Racing has had some opportunities to improve. I’ve been very confident, down to the detail work of being a board member of the AMA, that it was the right thing for professional road racing to see a professional race company like DMG be able to step up and take the sport to the next level.” Asked to expand on why DMG taking over AMA Pro Racing was a good thing, Burleson said, “I think it’s the difference between being a membership organization like the AMA is and being an organization focused on developing racing. In this particular case I think that they [DMG] have a proven ability to do just that — focus on the development of racing. “Through a lot of discussions, both at the AMA level and in other forms, we’ve heard quite a lot of good feedback that they [DMG] have an intention to build Pro racing into the final stepping point, but not the only point, for amateur racers. Amateur racing is an important part of their strategic plan. From our side as a newer manufacturer entering road racing we see how that can have a really good impact on things, enabling young motorcyclists to get into racing in a developmental manner where they can come up from the amateur side all the way to the professional side. I haven’t heard anything about that from MIC or anything in the press releases for the USSB [United States Super Bike].” For KTM North America’s racing plans, Burleson referred Roadracingworld.com to his Director of Racing Kurt Nicoll, who said, “We’re not as settled as to tell you exactly which riders and classes, etc. at the moment, but in some way, shape or form we’re definitely planning on [road] racing, yes. “We’ve seen a rough outline of how the rules will be in each class. We’re waiting for some confirmation to see which classes the bikes fit best in, plus what help we can get from the factory as far as getting parts for the bikes and what’s needed. “I’m at Indianapolis now, and I’m hoping to get some more information from DMG [AMA Pro Racing] this weekend as far as the rules and the classes go. So we’re moving step by step toward making everything concrete.” Among the possibilities, Nicoll said, was racing the new 1180 RC8 Twin in the new American Superbike class. Whatever road racing KTM North America does in 2009 will be done with Mitch Hansen’s HMC squad, which has fielded KTM’s factory Supermoto team for the last several years and has run the Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup program this season.