Kras booster for GL12 KTM switch
By Team TMX on 23rd Nov 16
Team GL12 will race KTM machinery next year and Bob Buchanan has landed a coup by signing 2016 Euro 300 champion Mike Kras to defend his title in the big bore two-stroke class on the world scene next summer.
Initially removed from the GP calendar by FIM Europe, the popular 300cc series is set to blossom yet further after Youthstream president intervened to make room for the big smokers by reducing the number of rounds of the Euro 125 and 250cc series.
Lewis Gregory – a true home-spun GL12 hero – continues in the squad as team-mate to Kras. And Dutch tuner Ton van Grinsven will again prepare the motors as well as again contesting the World Vets at Assen for GL12 next September.
There was a certain inevitability about the switch of marques. While European maufacturers have continued to bring out new models suitable for the 300 class, GL12 had reached the limits with the Yamaha, a model, which had remained virtually unchanged for a decade.
A fact emphasised as Gregory and Brad Anderson suffered innumerable DNFs last year as the team pushed past the mechanical limits to remain competitive.
TM, 300 champion with Samuele Bernardini in 2015, will return next year with Davide Guarneri, the former GP ace who rode WEC last summer, while the latest convert from GP ranks is Swiss rider Christopher Valente, who passed the MX2 age limit last year.
He stays with the Italian Marchetti KTM team.
Brad Anderson is also expected to return with Verde Sport.
