KTM Factory Riders plan Christmas with family and friends Tigers on the racing circuits – home boys at heart. Family, friends and the comforts of home are what most of the KTM factory riders plan for Christmas 2008 while parties are on the agenda for New Year’s Eve. With the exception of Hiroshi Aoyama, who will be in the air at Christmas, the rest of the KTM line-up plan to spend the holiday season celebrations with those near and dear, catching up on some of the quality time with their families that they miss during the racing season. Kallio in the snow So while Hiroshi takes yet another intercontinental flight, his 250 cc road racing team-mate Mika Kallio will be enjoying a cosy Christmas with his parents and grandparents back home in Finland. Kallio then goes to his cottage in Lapland for the New Year celebrations, where he will be joined by friends and his brother and sister and because there has to be a bit of speed on the agenda, he will be skiing riding his skimobile and indulging in a bit of ice racing. While Mika is enjoying the snow landscape, Hiroshi will be back in Barcelona, his European base, for New Year where he will celebrate with friends and take a trip around Spain. After his friends leave he will start intensive training for the planned tests (January 24-26). Hiemer chills out in Germany KTM’s “Asphalt Surfer” Bernd Hiemer will take a well earned pause from Supermoto activities and is very much looking forward to spending Christmas with his family. His recently completed house in Germany is where he will celebrate New Year together with a small group of close friends. Bernd is recovering from a ligament injury but has promised to continue with the exercises as instructed by his doctor. He wants to be completely fit to prepare for the next season’s racing and has the S1 title in his line of vision for 2008. Quality family time in UK for Tommy Searle Racing is never far from the minds of the MX1 & MX2 squad, but they too will be indulging in some home life over Christmas. Tommy Searle will be with his family and relatives back in the UK for Christmas but on Dec 28 he heads for the USA for concentrated training in warmer weather. Tommy says he will also be on the lookout for some big parties on New Year’s Eve! Party Food and Water Sports for Tyla Rattray in South Africa Tyla Rattray will be home in South Africa with his family, enjoying high summer temperatures in the mid 30ºs. Fit and well after his reconstructive knee surgery, Tyla will be part of a big family gathering with plenty of festive food and probably some water sports like snorkelling and jet skiing. He is confident for the new season and will be back in Europe for training in January. Family get-together for Rui Goncalves New to the MX2 factory team, Portugal’s Rui Congalves will also celebrate together with his family in his grandmother’s home. Although plans are not yet fixed for New Year he hopes to repeat last year’s celebrations with friends where they went to a farm to party hard and eat good food. Rui, who is hoping for a top five position in the 2008 world championship, is looking forward to his first season with the KTM factory team. “Silent Night” German-style for Max Nagl Germany’s Max Nagl, the KTM MX1 rider will spend Christmas with his family quite near the German-Austrian border. The recent arrival of his sister’s baby will make the occasion very special for all the family. Between Christmas and New Year, Max plans a trip to Italy for some fun Enduro riding with his cousin and will return to Stuttgart for a big New Year’s party with his girlfriend and close friends. Tarkkala also chasing snow KTM’s Enduro factory rider, Finland’s Marko Tarkkala, will also be chasing some fun in the snow after spending Christmas with his family. Like Kallio, he too will head for Lapland. He plans to stay for two weeks to enjoy some skiing and turn up the gas on his snowmobile. In January Marko will travel to Spain for Enduro training ahead of the new season.