It was in 2004 that German technicians Klaus Hirsekorn and Alex Baumgärtel teamed up to build the Kalex AV1, which Klaus destroyed in Hockenheim during a spectacular high side followed by a fire. The first test of the next motorcycle was carried out in Cartagena by Rico Penzkofer in 2007.
The first race victory was obtained by Damian Cudlin in Schleiz, and the first international participation took place during the International Ducati Clubrace in Assen again with Damian Cudlin. KALEX engineering GbR was registered as a company in 2008, compressing the two first names of Klaus and Alex to obtain Kalex.
The results of this small German company were remarkable, with the best record in Moto2. But concern arose last year when KTM arrived in the category. Kalex won the first 15 of the 18 Grands Prix, but KTM hit hard in the last three races with three victories for Miguel Oliveira, complemented by three podiums for his teammate Brad Binder. Was the time of small craftsmen over? Was big industry going to dominate?
This fear was only temporary when Francis Bagnaia, Lorenzo Baldassarri et Alex Marquez made up the trio for this year's first podium in Qatar, all on Kalex.
“KTM was a clear reference point for us in 2017. It was useful » said Alex Baumgärtel for Kalex. " This competition is good for us, in any case. I don't want to say that it used to be sort of a blind flight, but that hadn't happened in the last three years.
“Without competition, you don’t notice where you still have big or small weaknesses. This was shown to us by KTM in 2017 in the last three races,” explained Alex Baumgärtel in an interview with Speedweek. com.
“KTM was then a clear point of reference for us. At these tracks, Phillip Island, Sepang and Valencia, we lacked something during the last third of the race.
“We were expecting fast laps early in the race, but Oliveira and Binder were very strong in the final laps. This awareness helped us go further.
“It's also more fun in real competition and it provides more fun and adrenaline. The riders will challenge us in 2018, especially those from KTM. The rider is the most important thing in this game. KTM and we are very well positioned in that regard.
“At NTS, for example, it's a little different, because with two drivers coming from CEV, it's not as easy as you've seen many times. »
In terms of favorites for the title, the Kalex boss was always open: “Unpredictable. Hard to say. The tests were not very significant due to bad weather. You can select a handful of drivers, but it's still very difficult to predict. »
Title photo © Motogp.com / Dorna
Photo above © Kalex 2017 (22 of the 32 Moto2 drivers, or 68,75%, and the last 5 World Champions in the category).
