After missing the Malaysian GP following the sudden death of team manager Stefan Kiefer, both Team Kiefer riders Dominique Aegerter and Tarran Mackenzie were back in action at Valencia … with news that the team will return next year as the second independent team to switch to KTM.
Aegerter has been retained, and will be joined by former Moto3 champion Sandro Cortese, rescuing the German’s career.
The other team switching to KTM after the Austrian brand’s race-winning first season, as previously reported, sees Sam Lowes take Luthi’s place alongside Iker Lecuona.
The news was confirmed with the release of provisional 2018 entry lists.
With Japanese chassis makers NTS also joining the class, fielding American Joe Roberts and South African Steven Odendaal, it brings the number of different frames in Moto2 to six, with Kalex still the most popular. The others are Suter, Speed Up and Tech 3.
The lists also show another novelty – in Moto3 Makar Yurchenko becomes the first-ever rider from Kazakhstan. He takes the place of this year’s youngest rider Patrik Pulkkinen, who is out of the series.
By Michael Scott
